Walk of Heroes Veterans War MemorialWalk of Heroes Veterans War Memorial

Flag Burning Ceremony

admin — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 18:42:31 +0000

An American Flag burning ceremony will be held at the Walk of Heroes Veterans War Memorial on Wednesday, 5:00pm, December 7, 2011. The ceremony will be performed by the local American Legion Post 77.

Korean War 60th Anniversary

admin — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 09:43:32 +0000

Korean War 60th Anniversary (Click image to enlarge)

The 60th anniversary of the Korean War was honored with a ceremony at the Georgia Veterans Memorial Park on June 27, 2010. Rockdale Korean war veterans and public officials marked the event .

Special guests included Sunny K. Park, CEO of General Building Maintenance, Inc., President of Global Sun Investments, Inc., and a Korean-American and naturalized citizen. Sunny Park was responsible for financing Georgia’s “Korean War Memorial” at the state Capitol. The other honored guest was Major General (Army, Retired) Gordon J. “Duke” Duquemin, a Korean army adviser from 1949-50 and a combat officer in the Korean War with the 5th Regimental Combat Team. Other dignitaries in attendance included the Rockdale County Board of Commissioners Chairman and CEO Richard Oden, the Georgia Veterans Memorial Park Foundation board president and former county commissioner Norman Wheeler, former county commissioner and World War II veteran Bud Sosebee, and Veterans’ Services Director and Vietnam War veteran Tommy Clack.

Memorial Groundbreaking

admin — Fri, 26 Dec 2003 09:42:09 +0000

This week construction on the Georgia Veterans Memorial started with groundbreaking at the Black Shoals Park location.

The initial phase of the six acre memorial park will include construction of the entrance to the memorial, a fountain, a pathway that will lead through the memorial, and statue of five soldiers.

The five soldiers represent the five military branches and will wear uniforms representing the five major conflicts in the 20th century. A 1500 square foot botanical garden near the entrance is already underway. Once completed the memorial will include a Walk of Heroes commemorating veterans of World War I, World War II, the Korean War, The Vietnamese War, and the Persian Gulf War. Along the walk will be commemorative pavers and at the rear of the memorial will be a ceremony plaza with a stage for events.

The vision for a Veterans Memorial began with former Rockdale Commissioner C.M. “Bud” Sosebee, who wanted to create a place to honor veterans without glorifying war.he said that he wants visitors in the park to see that soldiers “were a brother, a cousin, an uncle or a father.”

Sosebee said he hopes the memorial will be as much a memorial as a place to learn history.

The Georgia Veterans Memorial Park Foundation is a non-profit organization and receives funding from private and public sources, including Rockdale County and the federal government. This year $200,000 was allocated to the Veterans memorial Park from the homestead option sales tax (HOST). Thanks to the efforts of United States Representative David Scott, the House of Representatives has allocated $500,000 to build pedestrian walkways, bridges, and car access for the memorial in the 2004 appropriations bill.

Vaughn Foundation awards grant to Veterans Memorial

admin — Fri, 13 Sep 2002 21:12:44 +0000

This week former Rockdale County Superior Court Judge Clarence Vaughn awarded the Georgia Veterans Memorial Park Foundation with $35,000, the first of two payments to be received by the foundation for the creation of a botanical garden.

The Vaughn-Jordan Foundation – created by Lewis Vaughn, uncle of former Rockdale County Superior Court Judge Clarence R. Vaughn – is a foundation that benefits horticultural or botanical science. Judge Vaughn said C.M. “Bud” Sosebee applied for the $71,000 grant last summer.”This is for the botanical garden that will be the entrance to the Veterans Park,” Vaughn said. “We considered it a worthwhile project, it’s in the purview of our charter and we decided to fund it.”

The botanical garden will be at the entrance to the six acre memorial, which sits on the shores of the Black Shoals Lake. “This will give the public the chance to go to the park and meditate about what veterans have done,”Sosebee said. “I think this will be a very exciting place to go and remember how good things turned out.”

Sosebee said that the grant from the Vaughn-Jordan Foundation should be sufficient to complete the garden once they settle on a landscaping firm, work can begin at once.