The Butler County Veterans Memorial Wall is receiving updates and repairs as the new board takes action to maintain the monument.
Retired Navy Lt. Cmdr. Larry Kimbrow, president of the local Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter Post 1056, said the bricks have been power washed, all railings have been repainted and one portion of the wall that was coming loose has been reset.
“We had two of the cement blocks come loose and were being pushed out, so we tried to figure out if we needed the engineers — before we knew it, a couple of hours later, Brad (Barwick) and Bardis (Dismuke) had it receded, re-caulked and put back in place,” said Kimbrow with an approving smile, as work was done mid-week.
Originally, the names of soldiers were carved in black into the dark granite memorial wall. However, due to the dark color of the granite, the names are not easily read. Kimbrow said the new board has now made arrangements with Steve Gilliam from Monument Works to have those names redone in white so they will be much easier for friends and family to read.
Kimbrow said the pylons in the center of the memorial will eventually list names from soldiers who fought in every war.
“We’re going to start on these two pylons,” he said, pointing to the pylon next to the memorial for Medal of Honor recipient Billie Gene Kanell.
“From the Vietnam War, the Vietnam Veterans Chapter of America is paying for those, then we’ll go fundraising for World War II, World War I and Korea,” explained Kimbrow.
Kimbrow said they will be working with businesses and the community to raise money to help fund the upcoming projects.