Over 58, 200 American soldiers lost their lives in the Vietnam War, and in Las Cruces a recent addition to the memorial symbolizes the sacrifice that so many made during that conflict.
A 4300-pound Huey medevac helicopter now stands mounted above the center of the Vietnam War Memorial in Las Cruces at an angle that makes it seem as if the helicopter is rising from the ground above what looks like palms from the jungle landscape that many who served in this war navigated.
Jim Harbison, a Vietnam Veteran who is with the Vietnam Veterans War Memorial project in Las Cruces says that the medevac Huey symbolizes so much from that war.
“It’s the Army’s version of an airborne ambulance. It was an average of about 17 minutes from the time you were wounded until one of these helicopters came in to pick you up to get you back to the hospital...So the Huey was much more instrumental in saving lives much faster than any other war up to that point," says Harbison.
As you walk into the memorial you pass panels that recognize the branches of the military that served in Vietnam, leading you to photographs of the nearly 400 New Mexicans who lost their lives while serving in the war. Visitor can now use a photo index to find loved ones that made the ultimate sacrifice.
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Jim Harbison says he encounters someone on a regular basis who knows a face on the wall.
“New Mexico is a small place, so almost every single day someone comes by and says ‘I went to school with that person, or that was my cousin, or there’s some relative that’s connected to this monument.”
Those connections are even more likely to happen now that the memorial features a “Faces of Vietnam” panel that shows photos of veterans who served in that war.
Harbison says that the memorial was built for the veterans who were never thanked properly when they returned home.
“When we came home we were never thanked. We weren’t even acknowledged that we served, and if the public had anything to say to us it was generally negative,” says Harbison.
Inscribed on the wall in large words are the words, “Heroes Never Thanked.” Harbison says that the memorial may offer some help psychologically to those who served in Vietnam and were not properly thanked, and he also says that he thinks that it’s important for Vietnam veterans to share with their families the sacrifices they made so that people can better understand the service of Vietnam veterans.
“All of us are getting old, and it won’t be long until we are a disappearing breed, and you need to talk to your family about what you did, and have them acknowledge your service. They have no idea what you did, and I think it’s important that you do that so they can recognize what you did and what other service members, even today do,” says Harbison.
The stories of service by soldiers in the armed forces are explained in the words of veterans on each branch’s panel at the memorial so that visitors can better understand the service and sacrificed that Vietnam Veterans gave to their country.
