Memorial To Honor Lower Bucks County Soldiers Killed In Vietnam Planned

A memorial to honor Lower Bucks County soldiers killed during the roughly 20-year-long conflict in Vietnam is being planned for Middletown.

The Middletown Board of Supervisors unanimously voted this week to allow the nonprofit Lower Bucks County Vietnam Veterans Memorial to place the planned monument in Veterans Memorial Park off Veterans Highway near the public works complex.

Ed Preston, chairman for the Lower Bucks County Vietnam Veterans Memorial, said the memorial will cost about $275,000, and the goal is to have it erected by spring 2021.

The memorial will be 10-foot by 10-foot and 5 to 6 feet tall. It would feature a black granite block that would have 96 names – 95 soldiers who were killed and 1 still missing in action – from around Lower Bucks County. The second black granite block will feature the symbols for the branches of the military and inscriptions recognizing veterans impacted by Agent Orange exposure and PTSD.  Two bronze figures of a couple looking at the names are planned to be placed in front of the wall.

Preston said the memorial is modeled after a photo taken when the traveling Vietnam Memorial Wall visited Penndel in 2017.

The Lower Bucks County Vietnam Veterans Memorial group did not come before the Supervisors to ask for money but only permission to construct the memorial in Middletown. They plan to fundraise for the memorial.

“When we did the Wall in Bucks County, we raised all that money on our own … we ended up raising $35,000 more than we ever expected, and we gave it back to the veteran community,” Preston said.

The largest expenses for the project will be the $140,000 cost for the bronze sculpture and $90,000 for the black granite memorial.

There is a memorial in Doylestown Borough to recognize all 136 Bucks County soldiers who were killed or went missing in the Vietnam War. Another riverfront display in Bristol Borough recognizes the men from that town who died.

Veterans Memorial Park in Middletown honors veterans and service members killed in conflicts throughout America’s history. The park is also known for hosting a World War II-era M4 Sherman tank.