Despite the windy and cloudy weather, a crowd of over 100 veterans, their families and community members gathered to honor local veterans, including a 98-year-old who served in World War II.
The newly built Main Street memorial sits north of the Kamas City Building on land donated by the city. It’s below a huge United States flag that can be seen throughout Kamas.
Flags from each of the military’s six branches hang on poles around the memorial, which includes a concrete path of six large squares that will be filled with bricks bearing local veterans’ names.
Only one square has bricks at the moment, but more are on their way.
Its top right corner is inscribed with the names of retired Maj. Earl McNeil’s family members, including his father, two brothers and sister.
Born and raised in Francis, McNeil said military service is a tradition in the Kamas Valley. In addition to many from his family, he said most of his neighbors and half of the boys at his high school served too.
Each of them motivated him to join the military, but McNeil said one of his brothers inspired him more than anyone else.
“He enlisted in the army and went to Vietnam, and he was killed in action in Vietnam,” McNeil said. “I just felt like I wanted to know what he had seen and what he did and so I, as crazy as it may seem, I felt a real desire to go to Vietnam also.”
McNeil enlisted in the U.S. Army right after high school. He was sent to the jungles of Vietnam’s central highlands for a year as part of an infantry company.
He said there were long periods where he didn’t see any combat or conflict and just searched for the enemy. And once found, McNeil said four or five days of battle would follow.
“That would happen over and over again,” he said.
One week-long battle stands out in McNeil’s memory. He said a lot of his company was lost. Some died, but McNeil said most were wounded and evacuated to hospitals.
The decreasing size of the company shifted McNeil’s responsibilities and perspective.
“Probably the most important thing was that despite our losses, we just had to move on,” he said. “We just had to continue the fight and continue going. So it was a real maturing experience for me.”
After six years, McNeil left the army for college and taught at a local middle school for eight years. He then returned to the army for another 10 years. After retiring, McNeil finished his career in teaching at South Summit High School.
That’s where two of his students were inspired to join the military: retired U.S. Air Force Col. Crissie Fitzgerald and Army Staff Sgt. Quinn Hicken.
Fitzgerald, one of McNeil’s earlier students, said he was one of a few community members who stood out to her as special.
“I didn't realize it at the time, but I think the connecting fiber to all of that was their military service, the way they carried themselves, the way they interacted, the way they pursue their own individual lives with discipline, the way they were fantastic members of the community, and the way they gave back,” she said.
Fitzgerald went to the Air Force Academy in Colorado and served in the Air Force and Air National Guard for 27 years.
Hicken was also inspired by McNeil and other veterans around him, like his grandfather, to serve. He said McNeil told him stories of his time in the military and it made him want to “serve a higher purpose.”
“Every time I talked to a prior service member about their service, you could see the glint in their eyes,” he said.
Hicken said his favorite part of military service is the camaraderie. He remembers one day at basic training in Missouri, he and his group had to parade on a field as punishment because someone had made a mistake.
The group had already showered and were in their bedclothes when they were called out into the pouring rain.
“I remember just standing there in the rain, just miserable. And then I looked at my buddy Jimmy, and he just looked at me, and we just couldn't help but just giggle, just because we were like, ‘You know what? Yeah, it sucks, but it sucks together,’ you know?” Hicken said.
Hicken is an active National Guard reserve member right now. He said one of his goals is to get more mental health resources for service members. Hicken said his younger brother, who also served in the 19th Special Forces Group, died by accidental suicide after struggling with his mental health. Sgt. Eric Hicken’s name is now carved into one of the new memorial’s bricks.
“We go into these tough situations with this mindset, like, I got to be a warrior, I can't show any sign of weakness. And unfortunately, some of us don't make it through that,” said Hicken, who said he’s had his own mental health struggles.
The Kamas Valley American Legion Auxiliary and the Kamas Valley History Group collaborated on the memorial, with Vicki Atkins and Terina Darcey being main organizers. They fundraised for three years to make the memorial possible. In the future, they’d like to add benches, statuary, plaques and additional landscaping.
