Sean C. Morgan
Oregon’s new World War II memorial visited the Sweet Home Elks Lodge last week to allow local residents and veterans to see it prior to its installation in Salem next year.
“That’s all for you, my friend,” said Jerry Lorang, a member of the World War II Memorial Foundation Board of Directors, to World War II veteran Sheridan Arnold of Sweet Home outside of the Elks Lodge Wednesday afternoon.
“It’ll be all right,” Arnold said of the memorial.
Arnold drove halftracks during the war in Africa and Italy. During the campaign in AfricacHennick, who was transported to the memorial by Sweet Home Fire and Ambulance medics.
Medics had responded to a call at Hennick’s house earlier in the day, and Paramedic Eli Harris noticed a presidential citation hanging in his home and that Hennick was a World War II veteran. The medics decided to take him to the memorial.
“That is really something,” Hennick said about the memorial. “It isn’t very often that we (Sweet Home) get the notoriety.”
Hennick served in the South Pacific on a minesweeper converted from a tuna boat, he said. He received a presidential citation after a mine hit and exploded against his ship, killing some 29 members of the crew. Thirteen survived.
Hennick served in the Navy until 1957 and was a member of the Seabees.
Some 152,000 Oregonians served during World War II, Larong said. About 20,000 still live in the state.
The memorial honors veterans such as Arnold, along with the 3,800 Oregonians who died in combat. The names of the fallen will appear on two black walls around the five-sided 33-foot obelisk and centerpiece, which will be erected at Wilson Park, near the intersection of Cottage and Court streets in Salem.
The obelisk was transported and displayed around the western part of the state last week, including the Veterans Day Parade in Albany and visits to Portland, Eugene, Springfield, Sweet Home, Cottage Grove, Roseburg and Canyonville. It will stand at the center of a 75-foot square. A world map will appear on the square showing the two theaters of combat and locations of major battles. Visitors will be able to use their smart phones to scan QR codes on the maps to learn more information about the war.
A touch-screen kiosk will be available for those who do not have smart phones, Lorang said.
“One of the goals of the project was not just to put up a static memorial,” he said. “We wanted to build continuing education about World War II.”
“The education piece of this is really cool,” said Tim Bronleewe, president of Oregon Memorials of Hillsboro. “It’s no longer static.”
The interactive memorial will provide a lot of history to visitors, he said. Oregon has many stories from World War II.
It was the only state to be attacked by Japan, for example, he said. Hawaii and Alaska were not states at the time.
The education piece will be handed off to the Historical Outreach Foundation, a part of the Oregon Military Museum, for continued development, Lorang said. Over time, technology will change. QR codes may no longer be used, and the foundation will be responsible to keep the memorial up to date technically.
The project will cost $1.135 million, Lorang said. The Elks in Oregon sold commemorative pins to raise funds for the project and have given $15,000 to the project.
The Elks have indicated they will have more to donate, Lorang said. At this point, the project has just $85,000 left to raise.
“We’re very proud of the fact we’ve had so many wonderful donors,” Lorang said.
The memorial will be dedicated on June 6, the 70th anniversary of the D-Day invasion of Normandy, the beginning of the allied drive into Germany. The obelisk will tour the east side of the state around Pearl Harbor Day, including stops in The Dalles, Warm Springs, Madras, Prineville and Bend.
Then it will go into storage for the winter.
Oregon is among the last states to dedicate a World War II memorial, Lorang said. Only six states do not have a state-sponsored memorial at this point.
That’s what prompted former Gov. Ted Kulongoski to do something about it, Lorang said. That was about four years ago. Fund-raising efforts began in earnest about a year ago, following a period of planning and design work.
“We’re very happy to say we’re shovel-ready,” Lorang said. Site work will begin on Feb. 15, and the 40,000-pound obelisk will be standing sometime in March, which will require a 320-ton crane.
The obelisk was cut from Barre, Vt., granite, Bronleewe said.
The memorial is 33 feet long because Oregon was the 33rd state, Lorang said.
To reach that length was a challenge, Bronleewe said. Normally, blocks are 10 to 12 feet long. The obelisk required a 35-foot block.
Oregon Memorials fronted the money to order the block, which took time while the quarry waited to find a lift with no fissures, Bronleewe said. The first potential block broke and went to other projects, but the second block worked fine. It took six months to get the block.
The obelisk was cut using 3-meter saws with 48-inch cutting areas, he said. The blades, usually vertical, had to be turned horizontal to cut granite of this size.
The block had to be set carefully for each of the five sides, Bronleewe said. It took four or five days to set the block for each side and about a day to cut it. Cutting took about five weeks. To finish the obelisk took about three months total.
Granite Artisans of Vermont cut the obelisk.
For more information about the World War II memorial, visit oregonwwiimemorial.com or facebook.com/oregonww2memorial.