BLOOMSBURG, Pa. — The Bloomsburg American Legion is a place for veterans to gather, and soon, it will be home to a memorial recognizing them for their service.
The Veterans Memorial of Columbia County has been in the works for more than 20 years, and organizers say construction will start soon.
"Six plaques, one for each branch of the service. There will be a large American flag and then flags for each branch of the service. We're not only going to emphasize those branches, but we also are going to emphasize those veterans from Columbia County who were killed in action," said Harry Mathias, coordinator of the project.
Mathias says the group has a list of more than 300 Columbia County veterans who were killed in action. The names are currently listed on the memorial's website. Mathias is asking people to look at the list.
"Determine, 'Have we missed anyone? Have we misspelled names?' Anything like that. When we do this memorial, which is going to happen this spring and summer, we want to make sure those names are right. We want to make sure we haven't missed anyone," Mathias said.
One of the names on that list is Wayne Williams. He was killed in World War II.
"August the 6th of 1944," John Williams said.
Wayne's son, John Williams, is a Vietnam veteran. He says the memorial means a lot to him.
"I think it's a wonderful thing for anyone who served. I think we're all going to be proud of it," John Williams said.
"To do this and get this in place for them so they have somewhere they can come and recognize their service and their colleagues, it is just so incredibly important," Mathias said.
Construction is expected to start this spring, so Mathias is asking people to look at the names on the website as soon as possible.