Major Tribute to Veterans This Weekend in Albany (VIDEO)

Veterans at Timber Linn Park need construction and labor help on the Traveling Vietnam Wall.

Photos and video by Tim King Salem-News.com

(ALBANY, Ore.) - Volunteers are needed at Timber Linn Park in Albany to help construct an amazing tribute for veterans that will be on display through July 19th.

Marine Vietnam War Veteran

The Oregon Veteran's Tribute is presented by the Linn County Veterans Memorial Association and it takes place through Sunday. It consists of the Traveling Vietnam Wall and the Veteran's of Oregon Field of Flags.

It all arrived Tuesday with an escort of 700 motorcycles, from Washington.

Patty Louisiana of Newport is the driving force behind Loyalty Days, and she worked hard to bring this event together.

The way she saw it, only a massive amount of support would suffice for this solemn tribute, "I put out a challenge to everyone in Albany to come out and join them, line the streets of Price Road so they could welcome and bring in The Wall. So starting at 11:30 people started coming in, American flags, there were people waving flags when the escort came in."

She says hundreds of motorcyclists and the Patriot Guard delivered the tribute to Albany. Now veterans there need help with construction on Wednesday.

Veterans working on Tuesday

One of the Vietnam Vets helping out is Ron Bolan. He says they really need more folks to turn out Wednesday.

"Tomorrow morning at 8:00 a.m. we're going to set up The Wall and The Golden Dog Tags. It's an all day job and we need all the help we can get."

They worked hard Tuesday getting the ground ready for the first phase of construction, "This is the Field of Flags that we are setting up for and it will be up all weekend," Bolan explained.

The Wall goes up Wednesday as well as the actual placement of the flags.

Patty Louisiana talking to another organizer

Anyone who wants to help out is welcome and encouraged. The more people on hand, the faster the work goes. Veterans joined non-veterans and even Oregon Guard soldiers got involved in the set up for the special event. They say it is an honor to work side by side with Vietnam Vets.

Daniel Franzwa is fairly new to the military. His involvement with The Wall and the Field of Flags, will allow him a chance to get to know people who wore the uniform long ago.

He says he jumped at an opportunity to be involved, "My sergeant told me about it. So he asked if I wanted to do it, I said I'd help out, so I'll be here all week.

Another soldier named Caleb Gay, said the event is important and something we don't see enough of.

Vietnam Veterans say it means more to them than most people know. It means a lot to Patty Louisiana also, she has two very good reasons for standing behind veterans.

"Personally, this is what a mother with two U.S. soldiers as her children, does with all of that nervous energy. I have been a long supporter of the veterans."

The Veterans need help Wednesday getting the event set up, please come to Timber Linn Park and lend a hand.

Each day is worth attending.

Wednesday July 15th 2009

8:00 a.m. Wall set up - Field of Flags - Placement of 1000 Flags begins

4:00 p.m.

6:00 p.m.

Thursday July 16th 2009

7:00 p.m. Candlelight Ceremony - The Wall

Friday July 17th 2009

5:00 p.m. Ride of Honor - The Wall

7:00 p.m. Oregon Honorable Service Medal Ceremony

Saturday July 18th 2009

10:00 a.m. Poker Ride - Sponsored by Roundabouts

4:00 p.m. Ceremony begins/Invocation/Flyover/Introductions

4:30 p.m. Oregon Honorable Service Medal Ceremony

Sunday July 19th 2009

10:00 a.m. Church Service

2:00 p.m. Warrior Medal Ceremony (Could be delayed)

7:00 p.m. Final Oregon Honorable Service Medal Ceremony

Watch the video!

Video

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Tim King is a former U.S. Marine with twenty years of experience on the west coast as a television news producer, photojournalist, reporter and assignment editor. In addition to his role as a war correspondent, this Los Angeles native serves as Salem-News.com's Executive News Editor.
Tim spent the winter of 2006/07 covering the war in Afghanistan, and he was in Iraq over the summer of 2008, reporting from the war while embedded with both the U.S. Army and the Marines. Tim holds numerous awards for reporting, photography, writing and editing, including the Oregon AP Award for Spot News Photographer of the Year (2004), the first place Electronic Media Award in Spot News, Las Vegas, (1998), Oregon AP Cooperation Award (1991); and several other awards including the 2005 Red Cross Good Neighborhood Award for reporting. Serving the community in very real terms, Salem-News.com is the nation's only truly independent high traffic news Website, affiliated with Google News and several other major search engines and news aggregators.
You can send Tim an email at this address: newsroom@salem-news.com