Memorial honoring 61 South Sound veterans unveiled

TENINO, Wash. — Vietnam veteran Frank Hicks read the names of the men who never came home from war as he stood in front of Tenino’s new Veterans Memorial.

“What is America but those that served and scarificed for their country? To me, you just can’t honor them enough,” he said.

Hicks is the Commander of VFW Post 5878 and served in the Navy for six years. Etched into stone at the Veterans Memorial are the names of his uncle and two childhood friends.

“They gave all that up. Children, grandchildren, wives, their children married, grandkids, yeah, yeah, they, they never got that,” he said.

Years ago, Tenino had a war memorial.

“The old sign used to be this wooden paint. This will not deteriorate,” said Hicks.

The old sign came down in the 1960s for repairs and never went back up. Hicks worked for more than three years to get the new memorial built.

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The city officially unveiled it for Veterans Day.

“As important as it is to remember the folks whose names are on the wall, I think it’s important to remember how important the military is to our community,” said Tenino Mayor Wayne Fournier.

Fournier said Tenino city officials worked closely with Thurston County officials to fund and construct the $150,000 memorial.

“This tells everybody what’s important to our community. It’s important that we speak these people’s names. Some of these names have probably not been said in many years,” said Fournier.

The 61 names will now be read for decades to come.

Cox Media Group