Veterans Memorial Park and Wall South, Pensacola, Florida

“The willingness of America's veterans to sacrifice for our country has earned them our lasting gratitude.”

Jeff Miller

 Smartly dressed in a suit and tie with flowers on the bench next to him, a young man sat under a shade tree as we strolled down the path towards The Wall South. He looked up and seemed disappointed it was just us as we walked towards him. We exchanged greetings and continued our walk under the cover of billowing trees. He seemed nervous and we thought this must be an important night for him.

This is a lovely 5.5 acre park with its great walking paths, large pond with lots of places to sit and watch the turtles and wildlife, and to reflect. The park was dedicated in 1992. The Vietnam Veterans of northwest Florida (VVNF) did fund raisers which included garage sales and baseball and volleyball tournaments to earn the money for this memorial, after seeing and feeling the emotions of the traveling wall. It took them five years to raise the money. This was an amazing feat as the construction of the wall was quite controversial at the time. The Washington, DC Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund wanted sue their brothers in Florida for copyright infringement. After consulting lawyers in Pensacola, they went forward with the construction. Since that time, both memorials stand strong and magnificent. I guess there was room for two.

The Wall South is half the size of the Vietnam Wall in Washington, DC, but still has all 58,217 names of the American killed or missing in Southeast Asia and is the same layout as it's northern version but the granite is a lighter color. It is so impressive and moving seeing all the names of our soldiers we have lost during that conflict. We have been to the memorial in Washington, DC and both had the same emotional effect on us. There is a computer, under cover, where you can look up names and find the exact location on the wall, where they are located. They have added a AH-1JC Cobra helicopter that stands above the wall and was dedicated in 2007. It is wonderful having this wall here near so many veterans, many who can't make the trip to Washington, DC and wish to come here to morn those they lost. Wall South is beautifully done and nicely landscaped.

There are are many other nice statues and memorials to see in this park. We saw memorials for the American Revolution, WWI, WWII, Korea, Purple Heart memorial, a memorial to the submarine lifeguards who rescued the Navy pilots in WWII, and the War on Terror. There is also a beautiful Marine Corp Aviation Bell Tower. 

This park is dedicated to the memories of those who sacrificed their lives to defend this great nation. We were glad we came to this lovely park to honor those men and women.

As we were leaving, we passed the same handsome young man all dressed up, still nervously scratching in the dirt with his shined shoes. We stopped and asked what the occasion was and he stated he was waiting for his blind date to show up. She was late so he was getting more nervous by the second. We prayed she would show up. I wondered why he had chose this spot to meet. Was his father or mother a veteran or deceased? Did he die in a war? This place must have meant something to him or he wouldn't have chose to meet someone here. We wished him well. As we were pulling out another car pulled up with a beautiful young lady all dressed to the T's. I'm sure they had a special night.