The Evolution of HCVVO's Memorial Garden
The Origin
In early 2003, a group of veterans who's unit had suffered major casualties in
a battle in Vietnam approached HCVVO about the possibility of placing a
plaque honoring their fallen comrades at our property.
They had originally wanted to place the plaque in a Memorial Garden at
Fort Knox, KY, but for reasons not fully explained to HCVVO, they had been
denied permission.
At that time, HCVVO did not have any place to put the plaque, but the group
was told that the request would be taken to the membership at the next meeting.
While the issue was discussed, it was then tabled for reasons discussed earlier
in this paragraph; however, it had planted an idea in the minds of several members.
Member, Dave "Brush" Bouse began a search on the internet for ideas for a
Memorial Garden. Unable to find a particular idea which coincided with the mental
picture which Dave had formulated, he began to make rough sketches for the
layout of a Memorial Garden for the grounds of HCVVO.
At the annual Thank-You party in October, following the 2003 Veteran's Reunion
"Brush" approached Chaplain Dennis Chapman, Mike Devore and Andy Lee to
show them his rough sketches. All agreed that it would be a good idea to present
the sketches to the membership at the next monthly meeting. The idea was over-
whelmingly and warmly received and the first step had been taken on a long
journey toward the completion of HCVVO's Memorial Garden.
In the spring of 2004, Dave took his rough sketches to Derrick Shilling, a co-
worker at Wabash Valley Manufacturing. Derrick worked in drafting and "Brush"
asked him he could turn the rough sketches into prints. During the next week,
as Derrick received various dimensions, such as the proposed size of the garden,
size of bricks to be placed in the garden, etc., Derrick was able to provide Dave
with a preliminary set of prints. The preliminary prints were shown to member
Mike Devore, a co-worker and brother vet at HCVVO. Together, Dave and Mike
reviewed the preliminary prints and made a few suggestions for changes.
Derrick then incorporated those suggested changes and even provided an
artist's rendition of what he imagined the walls would look like.
Now David could give HCVVO a set of prints that gave dimensions for each step
of the garden's construction. Those prints were approved at the next monthly
membership meeting.
Approval of the plans was one thing, but finding people with the appropriate
equipment needed to dig the footers, raising money for materials needed and
labor to take the garden from blueprints through to completion would prove to
be a challenging and lengthy task, and often times, one filled with setbacks.
The Memorial Sign
While many members ( including Andy Lee, Roy Barnett, Al Bolden,
Dennis Crouse and Mike Devore) searched for a backhoe, which would hopefully
be donated for use, David approached Jim Haney, the Vice-President of
manufacturing at Wabash Valley Manufacturing in Silver Lake, Indiana with
the sketch of the garden in hand. Dave's intention was to request an estimate
of the cost of the sign for the Memorial Garden. After hearing of the proposed
Memorial Garden, and its reason for planning, Mr. Haney amazingly directed Dave
to Kent Wiemer, Supervisor of Engineering with the instructions to Kent that the
sketch of the sign be drafted into working blueprints, and the cost?............well,
the sign was to be manufactured and donated to HCVVO at no cost. (Special
note: this seems to be the appropriate time to mention that WVM has been
extremely generous to HCVVO since HCVVO purchased the current veterans'
property by donating numerous tables, benches, and trash receptacles that
WVM manufactures along with numerous materials that HCVVO has needed
over the years we have been at our present location; the total retail cost being
in excess of $30,000.00)
WE OWE A GREAT DEBT OF GRATITUDE TO WABASH
VALLEY MANUFACTURING, TO JIM HANEY
AND TO ALL THOSE EMPLOYEES AND MEMBERS WHO
HAVE BEEN SO VERY GENEROUS TO HCVVO THROUGHOUT
THE YEARS.
The instructions were delivered to Kent and the result was numerous meetings
over the following week between Mike Devore, Dave Bouse and Kent, as they
worked to bring in the final blueprint. HCVVO owes many thanks to Dave Richard,
Tim Foltz and Derrick Shilling for their efforts in drafting the final blueprint. The
blueprint was then entered into the computer which controls the large plasma cutter
at the factory and the sign was cut out of 10-gauge steel. It consisted of one sheet
with the lettering cut out and a second sheet that was blank; except for being of the
same dimensions and shape. The two sheets were then sent to R & D to be ground
smooth by Brian Younce, and then sent onto Powder Coating where the sheet with
the lettering cut out was powder-coated black and the blank sheet was powder-
coated white.
Once powder-coated, the two sheets were returned to Brian, who then fabricated
the legs for the sign (which were also powder-coated black). Brian then bolted the
whole sign together, and it was ready for transportation to the grounds of HCVVO.
The Footer
David then transported the sign to the Veterans' property where it was received
with a standing ovation from the members present.
During this time, the members who had been trying to locate a backhoe were
unsuccessful in obtaining one. David again went back to his hometown, this
time approaching the owner of Whitley Trailer Sales, Lee Eberly, and inquired
if Lee might possibly be able to donate the use of his backhoe/bobcat to dig
the footers for garden. Lee told David that the cost of sending a driver/operator
for the backhoe from South Whitley, Indiana to Kokomo would be quite high, but
Lee said that HCVVO should be able to rent/hire a backhoe locally for about
$200.00 or less, then proceeded to write David a check for that amount to be used
obtain one.
Things were not only looking up, but step by step, the garden was becoming
a reality. Then just prior to the September 2004 reunion, a backhoe arrived and the
donated his time and the machine to dig the footers. Once the footers were dug, then
Dennis Crouse and "Chewy" Keith proceeded to lay the wiring for the lighting of the
Memorial Garden. That accomplished, HCVVO used the $200.00 donation from
Lee Eberly to help pay for the footers, which were poured only a matter of days
before the reunion, with Ron Widows, Doug Dittman, George Wilson, and Bruce
Wilson doing most of the finish work.
The Walls
Due to the approaching winter, work was suspended until the spring of 2005,
In the spring and summer of 2005, HCVVO again found that although there were
` many promises of "maybe" concerning the layout of the bricks for the wall around
the garden, it was not until June of 2005 that Dennis Crouse made able to make
contact with Joe Bramlet, International Union Representative for a brick-layers
union. Dennis explained what we were looking for and Mr. Bramlet directed
Dennis to Pat Schroder of Marion, IN who was a Field Representative for
the Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers Local # 4 of Indiana/Kentucky.
Pat told Crouse that he would get a crew together, made up of the President
of the Local, Field Reps and Instructors to lay the brick wall; again, at no cost
asking only for some additional labor to help with the mortar and with carrying
the bricks that had been donated to HCVVO by member and trustee Andy Lee.
Pat explained that depending upon the weather, the crew would arrive at the
Veterans' property on Saturday, July 16th, 2005.
Promptly at 0700 on the morning of the 16th of July, Pat, along with Ken Reiter
of Plymouth, IN, Kevin McClanahan of South Bend, IN, John Meyers of Marion, IN,
Dave Murray and Steve Crafton of Indianapolis, IN, John Lee of Hartfort City, IN,
and Ted Champ, the Local President from Redkey, IN arrived at the property to
lay the bricks.
The morning sky was overcast and the dew lay heavy all around. The weather
forecast was for isolated showers during the day, but Pat assured us that if the
weather would cooperate for a mere 3 to 4 hours, they could still lay the bricks.
With the volunteer labor of Mike Devore, Roy Barnett, Any Lee, Randy, Gunner
and Paul Bouse, Al Bolden, "Chewy" Keith, Dennis Crouse and many other
brother veterans, the bricklaying commenced.
These men from the reunion were outstanding, laying nearly 1500 bricks in less
than 3 hours. As the bricklayers neared the end, Ken told us that it was customary
for the bricklayers on the job to have the customer or owner lay the last brick,
so members who had either been working as laborers or who had come to observe
the bricklayers in action were invited to participate in laying the last row of bricks
on the back wall. Those who helped lay the last row were Al Bolden, Andy Lee,
Jim "Chewy" Keith, Gus "Gunner" Bouse, Jim McKinney, Joe and Karen Chumbley,
Mike "Magilla" Devore, Paul Bouse, Rick Balser, Suzie Lee, HCVVO President
Dick "Frogbo" Forrey, and getting the honor of laying the last brick on that back
wall was Carol Forrey, wife of our President. The brick laying was then capped
off with a group picture of the union members and many members of HCVVO.
The Cap
HCVVO then treated the bricklayers to food and beverages to celebrate the completion
of the wall.
It was at this point that Andy Lee, with the help of his son, Randy Ray, essentially took
over the tasks of getting lumber for forms and arranging for the cement for the cap. Andy
was very familiar with the Kokomo area and the businesses we would need to contact
for the cement, and BOY DID HE EVER COME THROUGH!
On August 19, 2005, Andy, Magilla, "Antenna" John East, Dave Bouse and Andy Lee
gathered all the lumber at HCVVO that oculd be used for forms, then figured out the
amount of lumber still needed to build all the forms and HCVVO purchased the additional
lumber. The crew then proceeded to start framing the forms for the cap. The original
idea for the cap was that it was to be 6 inches thick, but on the advice of Randy Ray,
the thickness was reduced to 4 inches.
The cement was delivered on Saturday morning, August 20th. During the early
morning, while awaiting delivery of the cement, the Memorial sign was installed and
bolted down. At approximately 0800, the IMI cement truck arrived, and the pouring
commenced with Randy Ray supervising the pouring. (While the IMI truck was
on the grounds, a pad was also poured in front of the new T-shirt barn).
IT SHOULD BE NOTED AT THIS TIME THAT THE PEOPLE NEEDED TO MIX
AND LOAD THE CEMENT ON THE IMI CEMENT TRUCK AND THE DRIVER OF THE
TRUCK ALL DONATED THEIR TIME, FORGOING ANY WAGES THAT DAY.
Randy was such a stickler for detail that the work on the cap was not finished
until late Saturday evening and although all the members present agreed that it
looked awesome, Randy was not satisfied and returned to work on the cap numerous
times over the course of the next week and a half.
While working on the cap, Randy seemed to be inspired time after time with
different ideas on how the cap should look when finished and the final result
was, instead of a flat cap over the brick walls, we now had a peaked cap with the
corners formed into flat areas, where cement urns (which were donated by
Carol Eberly of Carol's Corner in South Whitley, IN) with flowers in them would
be placed. Another change was to form platforms for cement soldiers to stand,
as if guarding the Garden.
Buck and Deb Smith, and Bob Burtch each donated a small soldier, with HCVVO
purchasing two more. Eden's Way of Kokomo donated an American soldier
dressed in the uniform being worn in Operation Iraqi Freedom.
In celebration of the Garden being nearly completed and ready for work to
commence on preparing the inside for Memorial Bricks, the members paused
solemnly, to raise our large flag to fly over the Garden.
The Garden Interior
The following weekend, "Brush" delivered 50+ black roller pads (3/8 X 27 X 38)
that had been donated by Wabash Valley Mfg. to lay a "floor" in the garden over
which Andy Lee would dump and smooth the flume, all this providing a base
for laying of the Memorial Bricks. Andy Lee, with the help of members of HCVVO,
then laid the Memorial Bricks which HCVVO had purchased.
Final (?) Touches:
An idea that had come to Randy Ray while he was working on the cap was that the
area behind the Memorial Garden was in need of some form of landscaping and so
Randy called upon a friend, who drove out, looked over the garden, and then made
some suggestions for landscaping.
Allen Colon, owner of Outside Solutions, of Kokomo, drove out and upon seeing the
garden, pledged to do the landscaping at the back of the garden AT NO COST TO HCVVO.
And oh, what a beautiful job he did!!!!!
"Chewy" Keith installed tow lights on the inside of the wall that when triggered
by darkness would shine over the bricks and on to the sign. Thanks very much
"Chewy."
Basically, the garden was finished, except for the occasional touch-ups
as needed, and HCVVO was ready to begin accepting orders for Memorial
Bricks on October 1, 2005.
Memorial Bricks
Dave "Brush" Bouse will be overseeing the orders for bricks. The following
information is given concerning bricks:
They can be purchased for any veteran of any branch of the Armed Forces,
serving in any era, who is deceased; whether killed in action, or who died later
in life. The veteran DOES NOT HAVE to be a resident of Howard County.
Each brick ordered is $20.00, (twenty dollars) and can have up to 3 (three)
lines with a MAXIMUM of 13 (thirteen) characters per line.
Order forms will be available on the HCVVO website; www.hcvvo.org, and
at the grounds of HCVVO.
Once the order form is completed, it should be mailed to
"David "Brush" Bouse
802 South State Street
#50
South Whitley, IN 46787-1486
with a check or money order made out to HCVVO. Please do not send cash
or drop off the form at HCVVO's property. Bricks will be engraved and placed
in the Memorial Garden as soon as possible allowing time for engraving to be
completed and the cooperation of weather in placing the brick.
(Example for a brick) Joe E. Soldier (13)
US Army-RVN (11)
1945-2005 (9)
DONORS (I apologize if I have missed anyone)
Lee Eberly, Whitley Trailer Sales $200.00 for footers
George and Bruce Wilson cement work
Ron Widows cement work
Doug Dittman cement work
Andy Lee bricks and mortar
Bricklayers and Allied Craft-
Workers Local #4 Ky/In laying the bricks
Wabash Valley Manufacturing, Silver Lake, IN Memorial Sign
steel for cap
Randy Ray Lee cement work on cap
IMI Kokomo, IN cement
Allen Colon, Outside Solutions, Kokomo, IN landscaping
Carol KEberly, Carol's Corner, South Whitley, IN cement urns
Deb and Buck Smith cement soldier
Bob Burtch cement soldier
Eden's Way, Kokomo, IN cement soldier
Other donors include: Caldwell Monuments, Kokomo, Indiana
Mike Lovegrove Construction, Kokomo, Indiana
Star Building, Kokomo, Indiana
Russel's Sewer Service, Kokomo, Indiana and to all those members and volunteers
who helped to make this dream a reality by donating their time and their labor.
How about a disclaimer of sorts? I apologize if I did not have specific dates
and/or missed anyone while writing this article, as I did not plan on making a
written record of the evolution of the garden when we started the project.
Dave "Brush" Bouse.