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New Jersey’s
Vietnam Wall Memorial
 In mid
September, on a hot and muggy day, Jerry Pujat of VFW Post 3513, Scottsdale, Arizona, being
the Webmaster VFW Department of Arizona
http://www.azvfw.org and Chairman VFW Operation Up-Link Phone
Card Program Department of Arizona, had the pleasure to travel back
to New Jersey where he was born to visit with his two children,
Chris Pujat who is a Fire Arson Investigator and Fire Marshal and Kim Whitehill, a policewomen.
While he was
there he had the opportunity to visit New Jersey’s Vietnam Wall in
Holmdel just off the Garden State Parkway. 1560 soldiers from New
Jersey are listed on the wall. Jerry was there when the
NJ Vietnam Veterans Memorial was dedicated on May 7, 1995. In
attendance were New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman, General
H. Norman Schwarzkopf, and more than 15,000 thousand veterans,
family members, and dignitaries from across the United States. It
was broadcast live on NJN television. On September 27, 1998, the
Vietnam Era Educational Center was dedicated with the help of
Governor Christine Todd Whitman and United States Senator John
McCain, of Arizona, who was a prisoner of war in North Vietnam for 5
1/2 years.
On
July 7, 1988, the design submitted by Hien Nguyen, a refugee who
left South Vietnam thirteen years earlier, was unveiled. Hien's
design contains a 200-foot diameter open-air pavilion, inside of
which are 366 black granite panels.
Each
panel of the Wall represents one day of the year. Each panel is
engraved with the name, date of birth and date of casualty of each
New Jersey’s killed or missing on that date. There are presently
1,556 names on these 366 panels. The center of the pavilion
contains NJ's state tree, the Red Oak, symbolizing the state from
which the servicemen and women came. Placed under the tree's canopy
are 3 statues -- one symbolizing all who served and came home, one
symbolizing the women who served, and one honoring those who did not
return.
Jerry's son Chris
and daughter-in-law, Donna, along with his 9 year old granddaughter,
Christina, came with Jerry to the Wall. It was a very moving
experience for all.
Jerry's son, Chris Pujat,
viewing the wall.
Jerry with his 9 year
old granddaughter Christina Pujat
United States
War Dogs Memorial
Dedicated on June 10, 2006, the
United States War Dogs Memorial, located guarding the gateway to the
New Jersey Vietnam Veterans' Memorial in Holmdel, New Jersey,
consists of a bronze statue of a kneeling Vietnam War soldier and
his dog, set on a black granite base. The memorial was designed
by sculptor Bruce Lindsay,
Architectural Division Manager at Johnson Atelier in Mercerville,
New Jersey. A graduate of Bucknell University, Lindsay's studio is
adjacent to Grounds for Sculpture, the 22-acre sculpture park on the
grounds of the former New Jersey State Fair. The U.S. War Dogs
Memorial, while directly representing the War Dog Teams of the
Vietnam War, honors all our nation's war dogs and their handlers -
past, present and future.
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