Veterans Memorial

Cutting through suspense surrounding the fate of the Memorial Stadium faM-gade, Mayor Martin O'Malley said yesterday he was ready to let the wall come down on East 33rd Street, in favor of a new memorial near Camden Yards. "We need to act now, given the age of the World War II veterans," O'Malley said yesterday. "It's urgent to erect a more proper, appropriate memorial, with some of the lettering. My primary interests are the neighbors and veterans, and if they agree it should come down, let's move right away."

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.

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.

UNIONTOWN'S MEMORIAL DAY service was particularly moving this year as residents laid a wreath to honor David Bennett, a Vietnam veteran and the town's former Memorial Day parade organizer. Bennett, former president of the Uniontown Improvement Association, died in December at age 66. Many friends and neighbors remember him for his many community activities, his fondness for old cars and his loyalty. It seemed fitting to honor not only a war veteran but a man who has meant so much to so many in the Carroll County village.

April 30, 2000 Dear Pfc. David R. Augustus: xxYou probably never expected your name to end up on a postage stamp. But in a way, it makes sense. Thirty-one years after you died in Vietnam, letters are the closest we can get to you. I have to go out on a patrol for five days with four men. I'll be all right, so pray for me, and I'll be home safe and sound. In the letters you are real. More real than in the friendly voice of the daughter who never knew you. More real than in the anonymous sea of white headstones at Baltimore National Cemetery.

In a state where history is treasured and richly commemorated, there have long been memorials to Maryland's veterans of the Civil War, World War I and the Korean and Vietnam wars. But today -- when the 21-gun salute sounds and the fighter planes fly overhead in missing-man formation -- will mark the first time the state has erected a memorial exclusively for its World War II dead.At a scenic overlook of the state capital at the Naval Academy bridge, a spectacular memorial to the 6,454 Marylanders who died in the world's biggest military effort will be dedicated.

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.

They scrub at sunrise, before thousands of tourists arrive.They scrub as a tribute, cleaning dirt away from the 58,000 chiseled names and polishing the black granite surface of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.They scrub because if war claimed their lives, these volunteers would want someone to care for their memory, too.For seven years, on the first Sunday of each month, the men and women of the 89th Maintenance Squadron have come to the wall in Washington from Andrews Air Force Base in Prince George's County to help protect one of the nation's most famous landmarks.

Fifty-three years after her husband disappeared over the TC Himalayas, Doris Ramos Stepanovich dedicated a headstone yesterday to the memory of U.S. Army Air Corps 1st Lt. Frank Miguel Ramos Jr."It makes it all the more real to see a plaque with Frank's name on it, lying in the ground," Stepanovich said as she laid flowers on the stone of her husband. "He's never had a funeral and I'm afraid he never may, but this was just beautiful."Stepanovich was among the three Maryland families that dedicated bronze markers at Dulaney Valley Memorial Gardens in Timonium to relatives missing in action -- one of many services held in the Baltimore area to honor Americans who died in combat.

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.