Lower Bucks Vietnam Veterans Memorial Model Unveiled

November 12, 2020

A scaled-down model of the planned Lower Bucks County Vietnam Veterans Memorial was unveiled on Wednesday.

A light rain did not stop people from attending the Veterans Day ceremony at Middletown Township’s Veterans Memorial Park off Veterans Highway near the public works complex.

The group behind the memorial, the Pennsylvania Vietnam Veterans Memorial Foundation said the finished version will be 10-foot-by-10-foot and 5 to 6 feet tall. It will feature a black granite block that will list 95 soldiers who were killed and 1 still missing in action from around Lower Bucks County. A second panel will display renderings of the insignias of the five branches of the U.S. Armed Forces, as well as the Vietnam War service ribbon. A bronze sculpture of a Vietnam War soldier will be placed in front of the wall.

The sculpture is being created by Abbe Godwin. The sculptor has created the Corpsman Memorial and the the Peacekeeper statue at the Beirut Memorial, both at Camp Johnson in Jacksonville, North Carolina, and the North Carolina Vietnam Veterans Memorial on the grounds of the state capitol in Raleigh.

The expected $250,000 cost of the Lower Bucks County memorial is being funded through state and local grants and various community fundraisers. Donations can be made online.

The memorial is expected to be completed by next year.

Middletown Township Supervisors Chairman Tom Tosti, State Rep. Frank Farry, Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick, State Sen. Tommy Tomlinson, and Bucks County Department of Military and Veterans Affairs Director Dan Fraley were all in attendance.

The idea for the memorial grew out of the traveling Vietnam Memorial Wall visited Penndel in 2017.