Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Memorial will fulfill a promise to honor the Valley's fallen military members
The monument will be surrounded by an existing circular walkway and flanked by benches. The monument is in close proximity to both the WWI and Vietnam memorials, near Fort Walla Walla.
A conceptual drawing of the planned WWII memorial that will sit prominently on a knoll on the corner of Myra Rd. and The Dalles Military Rd.
WAITSBURG – A committee of local active and retired military men has every intention of seeing that a promise made to WWII General Jonathan Wainwright in 1946 – to honor local lives lost in WWII with a memorial – finally becomes a reality. Waitsburg's city council didn't hesitate to join the cause and committed $5,000 to the endeavor.
Retired USAF Command Sergeant Don Schack went before Waitsburg's city council last week to share plans for a WWII memorial that would honor the 87 Walla Walla Valley men who lost their lives in WWII.
Schack said that 4,420 men from the City of Walla Walla and surrounding valley served in WWII. Of the 87 local men who died in service, one was from Waitsburg, one was from Prescott, and one was from Dixie.
"We have a Vietnam memorial, we have a WWI memorial. We do not have a WWII memorial which was promised to the Valley by the City of Walla Walla and the County of Walla Walla to General Wainwright, in public. It never happened," Schack said.
"The committee found that out some years ago and they went to work on it. Now it's going to happen," he added.
Schack said the Walla Walla Valley WWII Memorial Committee has been working on the project for about two-and-a-half years. The names of the fallen have all been verified by the Dept. of Defense, the memorial has been designed, and the City of Walla Walla has donated the land. Now they are working to raise the $350,000 they estimate that the memorial will cost.
Schack said they have already raised nearly $75,000. The City of Walla Walla has given an "unofficial nod" of $35,000, the City of College Place committed $10,000, Rotary International committed $10,000, and the board members themselves have contributed $10,000 to the project.
Once the committee has secured $120,000 in commitments, they plan to turn to the general public for donations. When donations reach $175,000, they will approach Sherwood Trust for a matching grant, Schack said.
"We're almost guaranteed matching funds from Sherwood Trust. If it's a good project, it's for the community, and it's for the community value they graciously give the money," Schack said.
The memorial is a scaled-down version of the WWII Memorial in Washington D.C and will stand prominently on a knoll on the corner of Myra Rd. and The Dalles Military Rd. A 40-foot-tall flagpole will stand before a circle of three 14-foot-tall marble pillars.
The names of the 87 local men who gave their lives will be engraved on the base of the foremost pillar. Four bronze medallions, engraved with the symbols of the four military branches at the time of WWII – the army, navy, army air corps, and marines – will be set in a stone marker at the entrance of the memorial site.
Schack said the committee hopes to have the memorial in place by Veteran's Day, 2017 which "doesn't give us a whole lot of time."
The Waitsburg council quickly agreed to donate the requested $5,000 in support of the project.
"This is a fantastic thing that needs to be done and should have been done years ago," Schack said.
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