J
e
r
s
e
y
s
h
o
r
e
•
S
p
r
i
n
g
2
0
1
7
54
JERSEY SHORE PROFILE
Their Stories Are Not Silent
continued on page 56
P
icture a football field filled with 1,562 males and one
female. Now imagine every single one of those people
disappears in the blink of an eye. The field is left empty with
only a story to be told for each of those souls.
How did this vision make you feel?
This was not just a vision but reality right here in New
Jersey two generations ago when a total of 1,563 residents
from the Garden State lost their lives in Vietnam. Fifty or
more years later, how can we learn about an era that now
seems so long ago? And how can we learn their stories and
keep their legacies alive, while preserving the history of a
generation?
The answers are all right in Monmouth County, and
millions of people each year either drive right past them
or are within one thousand feet and never even realize it.
Jill
Ocone
A visit to the New Jersey Vietnam Veterans' Memorial
and Vietnam Era Museum & Educational Center
by Jill Ocone
Top Right: A restored 1964 Bell UH-1D Huey helicopter
outside the Museum & Educational Center.
Bottom Right: The New Jersey Vietnam Veterans' Memorial.
