Honoring Virginia's war heroes....

"To honor our Veterans,
Preserve our History,
Educate our Children,
and Inspire Patriotism in All."
Virginia War Memorial

This month's Shenandoah Valley Electric Cooperative Living magazine is graced on the cover by a photo of former Vietnam POW Paul Galanti who lives in Richmond. He is standing in the Virginia War Memorial located in Richmond, that stately glass-and-stone shelter with the names of 11,600 Virginia heroes etched in its walls ... the names of those who made the ultimate sacrifice for the freedoms we enjoy.

My mother's oldest brother's name is etched on the walls ... a rural Virginia hero who died overseas in the waning days of World War II.

Paul Galanti was in the Navy and was shot down during the Vietnam War and held as a prisoner of war for six years. I wrote about him in my post, Talking over iced tea with living history ... former POW Paul Galanti, originally posted August 20, 2006.

Used for memorials and as a site for military homecomings from Iraq and Afghanistan, the Virginia War Memorial wants to expand to provide more space for those activities but also to expand its educational opportunities. The new addition will be called the Paul and Phyllis Galanti Education Center and they are seeking funds to help finance the effort.

Cooperative Living reports that the new facility will provide:

--A multi-purpose room and a training room to accommodate increasing school field trips, veteran groups, active military and general visitors and tourists.

---A dedicated theater to display the memorial’s award-winning educational film series, Virginians at War, which cannot be shown today if the existing auditorium is in use.

---Space for proper storage and access to the Memorial Research Library, which consists of books, posters, magazines, newspapers and films, currently unavailable for educational research and the general public.

---Exhibit space to highlight the wars in which our veterans have served and sacrificed.

---Space for the memorial’s Salute to the Vir­ginia Veterans computer educational programs.

---Permanent staff, volunteer, and artifact/ exhibit storage space currently housed in three overcrowded temporary trailers.

----Sufficient improved outdoor amphitheatre facilities for patriotic and veterans’ events at the memorial, currently supported by numerous off-site resources.

Those who would like to help support this effort, financially or otherwise, may check out the Virginia War Memorial site.

Talking over iced tea with living history ... former POW Paul Galanti

[Reprinted from SWAC Girl on August 20, 2006.]

Richmonder Paul Galanti, Vietnam POW

Quick! Someone pinch me! I thought I had a conversation over iced tea with living history ... former Vietnam POW and American hero Paul Galanti....

Not only did we have a discussion but he paid for my iced tea. He ... a Navy fighter pilot who spent almost seven years in a stinking hole in Vietnam as a prisoner of war ... bought me iced tea.

It was I who should have bought him ... the world.

Flash back to 1967, front cover of Life magazine. Seated on a stark wooden bench, alone, in those Asian pajama outfits they wore, was a dark-haired young man staring directly at the camera.

I was in 9th grade and our social studies assignment was to keep a running journal of the Vietnam War, collecting newspaper articles and Life magazine photos. I remembered that photo on Life's cover. That young man was Paul Galanti.

Fast forward 40 years to a few days ago in Norfolk, VA ... where that 9th grader, now a middle-aged woman ... and that dark-haired young man, now a 60-something gray-headed gentleman ... were discussing the Vietnam War. I had first met him a month earlier at the War Memorial in Richmond at a George Allen rally. Paul Galanti is the Chairman of Veterans for Allen in this 2006 re-election campaign. The occasion in Norfolk was another Veterans for Allen rally.

Paul Galanti lives in Richmond which is where I grew up. His wife Phyllis was an outspoken advocate during the 1960s and 70s in calling for better treatment of American POWs in Vietnam including her husband. She was famous and a distinct memory from my teenage years.

Commander Galanti was someone I grew up knowing about. He spent my middle- and high-school years as a POW. If I could buy the world for Paul Galanti I would because he helped buy the world for me ... in the form of freedom ... by spending that time in that stinking POW camp in North Vietnam.

All I can do is say ... thank you.

From the bottom of my heart I am grateful for every day of freedom I have ... and that my children have ... because of his sacrifice. Thank you, my new-found friend Paul Galanti ... and may God bless and reward you for your sacrifice to America.

I talked over iced tea with living history ... an American hero.

See the companion post, Honoring Virginia War Heroes, posted June 18, 2008.