Alaska News

A visit to Anchorage Veterans Memorial swells the heart

There are one-hundred-eighty-six Alaskans memorialized by name on the Anchorage Veterans Memorial at Delaney Park. Unfortunately, other Alaskans' names will soon be added due to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

It falls to those extraordinary men and women who either volunteered, or previously, submitted to conscription into the American military, to defend this country. That defense has been against genuine threats to our way of life, various international causes, or political objectives under a United Nations banner. One need look no further than displays in the Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center, or the newly-opened Alaska Veterans Museum, to see the historic engagements in which Alaskan citizens have participated. To those whose lives have been sacrificed, we remember daily but pay them particular honor each Memorial Day.

A visit to the Anchorage Veterans Memorial at Delaney Park will present to you, by name, those Alaskans killed in our defense from World War II, Korea, Vietnam, the Gulf War, Iraq, and Afghanistan. This venue perpetuates the memories of those Alaskans who stood their ground, in far away hostile places, for us. It is a fine place to visit, to reflect, to perhaps put life in a bit different perspective, but always to realize that there are many citizens who have, and are currently, providing a shield for the rest of us, at great risk to themselves and significant challenges to their families.

On this Memorial Day, like all Memorial Days, taps will call us to remember the fallen. The American flag will stir above a monument downtown to 108 Alaskans killed in World War II; 10 killed in Korea; 57 in Vietnam; one in the Gulf War; and so far, more than a dozen killed in Iraq and Afghanistan -- my son, Marine Lance Cpl. Grant B. Fraser, among them. Alaskans all, they deserve our respect, our lasting gratitude, and our remembrance.

Sharon Long has Alaska family roots reaching back to territorial days, lives in Anchorage, serves on the Anchorage Veterans Memorial Committee and lost her son on Aug. 3, 2005, during combat in Anbar Province, Iraq.

By SHARON LONG

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