Veterans Memorial

* The Korean War Veterans Memorial will be dedicated in Washington today, the 42nd anniversary of the Korean Armistice. The dedication will highlight a week of events to honor veterans of the war (1950-1953). Today's events will begin at 10 a.m. with a wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery.* The memorial consists of 19 statues, each more than 7 feet tall and weighing about 1,000 pounds. All services that fought in the war on foot are represented: 14 Army, three Marines, one Navy medic and one Air Force forward observer.

Nicholas Walters never served in the military, but he was indelibly shaped by the stories he heard from his father, Sanford Walters, a Towson resident who served in Vietnam in 1969 and 1970 as a U.S. Army lieutenant. "He's someone who has always been committed to the veterans," Nicholas said of his dad. "It doesn't matter how old I get, he's someone I'm always going to look up to and respect his opinion and experience. " It troubled Nicholas to hear about the treatment his father got when he returned home and re-entered civilian life during those tumultuous times in the early 1970s.

County government to be closed tomorrow Carroll County government offices will be closed tomorrow for Memorial Day. Carroll County public libraries, public schools and senior centers also will be closed. Northern landfill and the recycling center will be closed. Commissioner to attend leadership institute County Commissioner Perry L. Jones Jr. has been selected to attend the county leadership institute by the National Association of Counties and New York University's Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service.

I am ambivalent about Memorial Day. On the one hand, it offends me that, for most Americans, Memorial Day has become just another holiday weekend — a getaway to the beach, the opening of the pool, a sale at the garden center. I once served as an Army nurse, in a stateside hospital to which wounded soldiers were evacuated regularly. So for me, the "memorial" part of the weekend always overshadows the "holiday" part. While I'm firing up the grill and watching for the kids and grandkids to arrive, remembrance rolls in out of the blue, like a solemn cortege.

At the scenic wooded spot where James L. Harris used to play as a child in the 1960s, his mother, Mattie, once again made a pilgrimage yesterday to remember her son who died in Vietnam.Shot in the head on May 25, 1968, James Harris, was among the honored dead at the Maryland Vietnam Veterans Memorial near the foot of the Hanover Street Bridge in South Baltimore.For Mattie Harris, the veterans memorial site is more than a place to gather with others who lost family members. On this landscaped, verdant rolling hill that slopes to the Patapsco River, she can remember her little boy who used to come here to play long before anyone in the neighborhood ever heard of Vietnam.

WASHINGTON -- The architects who designed a new Korean War veterans memorial say federal bureaucrats "brutally changed" their design and intend to build a "radically different" memorial that "glorifies war."An official of the American Battle Monuments Commission, defending the changes, said control over the design belonged to the government, not the architects.The fight over the memorial, which is to be built near the heart of the Washington Mall, is becoming a battle over the way in which the Korean War will be remembered.

Forty years after the Korean conflict ended, seven Carroll County men who lost their lives during that war will be memorialized in Westminster."It's long, long overdue," said Mayor W. Benjamin Brown. "My whole sense of wanting to be a part of this is that it's the least we can do to remember anyone who serves their country, particularly during war. Remembering those who gave their lives is an absolute must."Unlike Carroll countians killed during World War I, World War II and the Vietnam War, the local men who died during the Korean conflict have not been memorialized -- at least by name.

As a half-dozen veterans looked on last night, City Council members introduced legislation to make Veterans Day an official city holiday again after it was dropped more than 35 years ago. At the same time, the City Council approved a resolution asking the Board of Estimates to reverse its approval of an agreement to retain a wall at Memorial Stadium that honored veterans. The legislation, introduced with the blessing of the Maryland Veterans Commission, calls for a new memorial to be built between Oriole Park at Camden Yards and PSINet Stadium.

DIANE D. (nee Cameron) RUSSELL of Jacobus, PA. Born March 21, 1945 in Baltimore, MD, and went to be with the Lord on Sunday, May 29, 2005. She was surrounded by friends and family as Angels led her on the journey into her new life. She was the daughter of Eleanore (nee Wheeler) Cameron and the late Elmer Cameron of Baltimore, MD. She was a graduate of Eastern High School, Baltimore, MD. She worked as an independent Certified Real Estate Appraiser and as an Associate Real Estate Broker. She formerly worked as an adjudicator for the Department of Veterans Affairs and helped disabled and wounded veterans receive their benefits.

WASHINGTON -- When President Clinton unveils the design for a new World War II Memorial on the National Mall today, its planners hope to quell critics' fears that the structure will encroach upon a postcard-perfect vista.The memorial, to honor the veterans and the war's role in American history, will be built between the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the Mall's primary axis.Some worry that the sightline leading from the west front of the Capitol -- a cherished panorama framed by the open space of the National Mall -- will be obstructed.

DIANE D. (nee Cameron) RUSSELL of Jacobus, PA. Born March 21, 1945 in Baltimore, MD, and went to be with the Lord on Sunday, May 29, 2005. She was surrounded by friends and family as Angels led her on the journey into her new life. She was the daughter of Eleanore (nee Wheeler) Cameron and the late Elmer Cameron of Baltimore, MD. She was a graduate of Eastern High School, Baltimore, MD. She worked as an independent Certified Real Estate Appraiser and as an Associate Real Estate Broker. She formerly worked as an adjudicator for the Department of Veterans Affairs and helped disabled and wounded veterans receive their benefits.

County government to be closed tomorrow Carroll County government offices will be closed tomorrow for Memorial Day. Carroll County public libraries, public schools and senior centers also will be closed. Northern landfill and the recycling center will be closed. Commissioner to attend leadership institute County Commissioner Perry L. Jones Jr. has been selected to attend the county leadership institute by the National Association of Counties and New York University's Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service.

On a rainy June morning, while the nation watched a great funeral unfold in Washington, the family of Anthony Cavallio gathered in a Formstone church in Rosedale to say its goodbyes. St. Clement's was the place where Tony Cavallio and his late wife Betty had renewed their marriage vows. They had sent their children to the church school. They had traveled here again and again to celebrate weddings, baptisms and first communions, as well as to mourn the loss of relatives and friends. Now the retired contractor had come for the last time, on the day of national mourning for Ronald Reagan.

The nation marked a holiday last week with a day off for many workers, sales at many stores and ceremonies for those who have served in the armed forces. But for Sam Sheetz, Veterans Day had a quiet, personal meaning - a remembrance from when he was a young man. When Sam Sheetz was wounded pulling fellow infantrymen out of hostile fire in Vietnam, he didn't think of the home runs he'd hit playing baseball as a youngster or the touchdowns he scored playing halfback for Bel Air High School in the early 1960s.

In the lobby of Manchester Elementary, the children have erected a Wall of Honor - poster boards filled with small blue stars, each inscribed with the name of a veteran with ties to someone at the Carroll County school. A memorial to veterans from the town stands within an easy walk from the school. Near the school's playground sits a small marble marker honoring a Manchester alumnus who lost his life in the Persian Gulf war 12 years ago. A group of fifth-grade pupils visited those three spots yesterday and spoke solemnly of service to country.

HEDGESVILLE, W.Va. - It has been 33 years. He'd be 54 now, if you can believe it. Sharon Scott Williams can't. She manages a painful smile. For years, the blonde Baltimore native, 56, a self-described ex-hippie, couldn't say her brother's name without crying. He was only 22 when he died. She can do it now, but barely. As she tells his story in the kitchen of her new West Virginia home, her voice catches again and again. She has never known what to say about Paul Scott Jr. Not really.

Hampstead resident Charles G. Leppo, who manned a howitzer during World War II at Guam, the Philippines, Okinawa and elsewhere, is now working to keep alive the memory of those who fought beside him, and those who followed in his footsteps.In 1989, Mr. Leppo was master of ceremonies at the dedication of the rebuilt Hampstead veterans memorial. At that time, names that had been omitted from the list of World War I and World War II veterans were added, as were the names of men and women who had served their country in Korea and in Vietnam.

When British decathlete Daley Thompson repeated as Olympic champion at the 1984 Games in Los Angeles, his victory-lap attire included a T-shirt that read: "Thanks America for a good games and a great time, but what about the TV coverage" - a dig at ABC. In similar fashion, the organizers of Saturday's inaugural Baltimore Marathon Festival received this response: "Thanks for a good atmosphere and a great party, but what about the hills." Corrigan Sports Enterprises has a three-year contract with the city to manage the marathon, and it includes an option on a pair of two-year extensions.

The Orioles' rite of early spring mixed Americana, snow and war awareness, all of which made yesterday's Opening Day at Camden Yards that much more meaningful to fans at the ballpark. And some were there to live it up, no matter what. Coming and going to their seats, hundreds paused to take in a new feature of the landscape near the south side of the B&O warehouse. Many were drawn to a simple curving wall and meditative space dedicated to the nation's veterans with the original lettering from the former Memorial Stadium facade on 33rd Street, which was cleared last year.

Fans attending today's Orioles season opener will be among the first to view two recently completed physical changes at Camden Yards: a $775,000 Veterans Memorial and exterior restoration of historic Camden Station. Contractors last week put the finishing touches on the memorial, which is at the south end of the B&O warehouse and features stainless steel letters salvaged from Baltimore's old Memorial Stadium. Another key element is a brass urn that contains soil from U.S. military cemeteries throughout the world.