Our intent in creating this memorial and remembering deceased Berkeley veterans is neither to advocate nor denounce war. Our belief is that in remembering we can promote understanding. Whether the reader simply skims the pages or reads every word, the impact may be quite powerful. The reader should keep in mind that the power is not in remembering the war, but in remembering the people.
The Berkeley Vietnam Veterans Memorial grew from efforts by Country Joe McDonald to have the City of Berkeley sponsor a memorial plaque honoring the Berkeley veterans who died in the Vietnam war. The City Council approved the installation of a commemorative plaque to be installed in the Veterans Building on November 11, 1995. The accompanying Interactive Online Memorial was started by Country Joe McDonald with assistance from the City of Berkeley Information Systems.
You may also want to visit Country Joe's home page. The Mayor's speech from this event may be found here.
The Mayor spoke again on Memorial Day, May 1996. Her talk is available here.
A Berkeley Vietnam Memorial Fund was established to collect contributions toward a permanent bronze memorial plaque to be hung in the Veterans Memorial Building. As of October 1996, many contributions have been received but more are needed. Checks should be made payable to the City of Berkeley with a notation that it is a donation to the Vietnam Memorial Fund. Please send checks to Mayor Shirley Dean, 2180 Milvia Street, Berkeley, CA 94704.
The history of this project dates back to the Berkeley Vietnam War Memorial Project founded in 1987 by Country Joe McDonald and also to personal experiences during and since the war. In 1991 the Berkeley-based Community Memory bulletin board, one of the first community computer bulletin boards in the U.S., launched the Community Memory Alameda County War Memorial project, listing the more than 2,000 Alameda County veterans who were killed in service during any wars. The internet-based Berkeley Vietnam Veterans Memorial owes an historical debt to the now defunct Community Memory system and its volunteers for their efforts in realizing the groundwork that helped this Berkeley memorial happen.
We've included some informational texts below about the 1987 and 1991 Memorial efforts that led to this Berkeley Memorial project.
Berkeley Vietnam Veterans Memorial Project Mission Statement
(1987)
An event poster from the 1987 Vietnam Film Festival and Arts Fair Event
The Story of the 1991 Community Memory Alameda County War Memorial Project
Press Release from the City of Berkeley about the 1995 Veterans Day Memorial Ceremonies
Veterans information was provided by the United States Department of Defense. Additional information and photos were provided by families of the veterans and via the Berkeley Historical Society. In some cases the format and breadth of each entry included in this memorial directly reflects only the data given to us by the Defense Department. Some text is also used from the 1991 Community Memory Alameda County War Memorial Project. The photo of the Wall memorial used in the main page was taken by Brian Strauss. These Web pages were designed by Malcolm Humes. Gracious thanks are due to all who contributed to this project.
This memorial began and was driven via the efforts of a small group of volunteers who persevered to ensure the accuracy of each name entered into this memorial. By no means does this memorial assert to be the definitive list of Berkeley veterans killed in the Vietnam war, but rather it reflects more than four years of diligence and reverence commemorating friends, family and neighbors lost in war. Any ommissions or errors can be easily corrected. Some of the names listed here are listed in US military databases with addresses outside of Berkeley but the veterans were born or raised in Berkeley prior to military service.
Visitors are encouraged to sign their name to the Visitors Guestbook. We may remove commercial material from this book.
You may add your comments on this project. This page will be periodically updated. Comments left here may be removed so we can keep this page small and current.
Please send any suggestions, corrections or problem reports to webmistress@ci.berkeley.ca.us rather than adding them to the comments page above.
