A Groundbreaking Moment

The ground they broke in Apalachicola Saturday afternoon was dry and firm, different from the soggy jungle mud American soldiers tramped through four decades ago in Southeast Asia.

But winds from that war wafted overhead like gnats in the warm breeze, as local and state officials sank shovels into what will soon become an outdoor plaza dedicated to veterans from all the nation's wars who have hailed from the many towns and hamlets throughout the southeastern United States.

Highlighting it will be a 7' by 8' detail, set on a black granite pedestal, from the Three Servicemen Statue at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington.

Retired Army Col. Harry Buzzett, an Apalachicola native who delivered the keynote address, told the audience how he felt when he first saw the statue on a memorable visit to pay his respects at the Vietnam Wall in Washington.

"As I stood there looking into their eyes, there was eyes 100 pair of which I'd seen in Vietnam, the eyes of young men, eyes grown old, lives with that pensive look, eyes with that look that's indescribable unless you've seen it," he said.

"They fought in a war that was unpopular at home, and unpopular with them. They'd been drafted and they were doing their duty. But my goodness, what our country asked of them! In a steaming, dirty jungle, full of all kinds of rats, both human and animal.

"They deserve our everlasting gratitude and they have it," said Buzzett, whose career began with his graduation in June 1944 from West Point, and extended through service in both Korea and Vietnam. "It is so gratifying to me that the country, slow but in our American way, understood that those young men were only doing their duty, that they deserve our honor and our thanks."

Buzzett did not shy away from the controversy that surrounded the creation of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial more than 25 years ago, when in 1979, "a group of veterans in Washington led by Jan Scruggs formed a corporation whose sole purpose it was to erect in Washington a suitable monument to the Vietnam dead."

He said the memorial turned to "the leading architects of the world (and) engaged the services of five distinguished Americans to judge the submissions.

"The award went to a senior architect student from Yale, a first generation Chinese-American," said Buzzett. "To my dismay and the dismay of many, there were some real objections, that she was a foreigner. What a disgusting thing to say. We're all foreigners, except the Indians, and certainly we didn't treat them very well.

"Another criticism voiced by the Washington wags was that whoever thought a monument with the names of 58,000-plus dead would be an adequate monument to celebrate the lives of those who sacrificed their lives in Vietnam," he said.

The criticism prompted Buzzett to write a letter at that time to the Army Times, pointing out the 2,420 names at West Point's Trophy Point, a listing of all the officers and non-commissioned officers of the Union Army who fought in the Civil War.

Later, when Buzzett visited the Wall for the first time, he said he "realized a number of the names on it were comrades of mine. It was the most numbing experience one could ever have."

He also talked to the crowd about the third component of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, a statue of nurses who served in the conflict.

Buzzett recalled once flying north to visit battalions in Cambodia. "Whenever I flew, I always monitored the infantry channel, the fighting man channel, I wanted to know what was going on down under me," he said.

He learned that there was concern on the ground about a wounded man who still needed to be treated.

"The pilot said ‘We don't have any more choppers," recalled Buzzett. "I told my pilot ‘We'll go in and get him." So we went in and picked up this wounded man."

Heading to the nearest mobile Army hospital, he described watching the nurses rush towards the plane like a scene out of the television show "M.A.S.H.," and even hummed the opening musical theme, to the crowd's soothing laughter.

"All of a sudden they came racing like they were possessed. They were possessed with the wounded," said Buzzett. "That's what these nurses did. Day in and day out, treating the suffering but being dedicated to the fact that they were going to make them live. They weren't going to let them die and most of them they didn't."

Buzzett closed his remarks with a warm expression of gratitude to Apalachicola's Jimmy Mosconis, who championed the project. "A native born son, Jimmy Mosconis, who had the desire to do something great for his city, who brought this monument here for all of us," he said.

Florida Park Service to Manage Grounds

 Florida Park Service Director Mike Bullock, who served two tours of duty in Vietnam, also spoke to the crowd of more than 200 people, ringed by two dozen members of the American Legion Riders Chapter 356, the Vietnam Veterans and Legacy Veterans motorcycle clubs, all of Panama City.

"I think it's going to bring a lot of visitation, a lot of economic benefit into the town," he said. "It's just great we can part of this."

Following its completion later this year, the Park Service will manage Veterans Memorial Plaza, along with the adjacent Chapman Botanical Gardens, as part of the Orman House Historic State Park.

In his remarks, Al Mirabella, commander of American Legion Post 106 and a Marine who served from 1973 to 1993, including stints in Somalia, Grenada, Bosnia and the Middle East, recalled the dedication of the last veterans' memorial in Apalachicola.

That monument was for Lt. Willoughby Ryan Marks, who commanded Company C of the 61st Inf. 5th Division, for showing "extraordinary valor" and sacrificing his life in an attempt to save a comrade killed in "The Argonne,'' a World War I battle fought Oct. 12, 1918.

"Now over 80 years later we are having groundbreaking to dedicate another monument to the men who served in a war," said Mirabella. "Thank you for your honor, thank you for your courage, thank you for your commitment and your sacrifice."

The groundbreaking was the beginning of the end of a story with local roots in the war itself, when Mosconis served as sergeant with a platoon that included Cpl. Scruggs. The two men stayed in touch after the war, as Scruggs went on to become founder of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, and Mosconis a longtime Franklin County commissioner.

For the last seven years, Mosconis worked with Scruggs' help to raise more than $400,000 in grants and donations to bring a replica here of the late sculptor Frederick Hart's Three Servicemen Statue, the only one outside of Washington. He also secured a half-block of land from the city, which the state will maintain under a long-term lease.

"These soldiers, some are here this morning, through their words and deeds have taught us the love of country, to have courage, the value of sacrifice, hard work, and virtue, the necessary ingredients for freedom," said Apalachicola Mayor Van Johnson. "This ceremony and the placement of the Three-Servicemen Statue, is only a small down payment toward the outstanding debt that we owe them."

At Saturday's groundbreaking, Mosconis wielded the same shovel he used at the groundbreaking of the original memorial in March 1982 on three acres adjacent to the National Mall.

State Rep. Jimmy Patronis (R-Panama City) also addressed the crowd. "A good friend told me ‘People come and go, but the commitments we make to our children are what we have to stake our reputation on," he said. "I don't know if I'm here because we're Greek, or share the same first name, but I am proud to have Apalachicola in District 6."

Vietnam vet Lloyd Dunlap, from Dawsonville, GA, who returned to Southeast Asia for the first time last year on a trip with Scruggs and Mosconis, was wearing a shirt emblazoned with the emblem of the POW MIA Joint Headquarters in Hanoi, still manned by the U. S. military.

"They are still actively looking for soldiers all over the country, with the aid of the Vietnam government, and they are still finding remains," said Dunlap.

He said that while many are aware of the more than 58,000 names on the wall, few are aware that about as many Vietnam vets committed suicide after returning home, so that the park will be a welcome place of healing and tranquility.

"If a soldier can come here and he's got a problem, maybe someone can tap him on the shoulder and say "Can I help you brother?" said Dunlap.