York Town Square

Ron Herman’s sunglasses reflect the statue honoring veterans of the Vietnam War at the York (Pa.) Expo Center unveiled on Oct. 3. Also of interest: Map aficionados will love bird’s-eye view of York County and Vietnam vets wall moves York countians.

For about 20 years, the total of those who died in the Vietnam War has stood at 101.
The bronze tablets on the front of the old York County Courthouse reflected that total, for example.
And actually, that number is correct.
But with work on the new York County Vietnam War Veterans Memorial, that total has been reduced to 85, and that’s the number included on the York Expo memorial.
Why the difference?

Here’s an excerpt from Jeff Frantz’s York Daily Record/Sunday News story on that topic: (11/5/09):

It’s an intentional discrepancy, said Barre Shepp, the former York County director of veterans affairs, who was involved with both efforts.
Before hanging the plaques on what was then the York County courthouse, the committee obtained a list from the Department of Defense of anyone who died while serving their country from 1964 to 1975.
Most, Shepp said, were killed in action in Vietnam. But some died in car crashes while home on leave or in accidents while stationed elsewhere around the world. But, that committee still felt it was appropriate to put their names on the courthouse.
“We wanted to recognize all individuals who served during that period of time,” Shepp said. “We wanted to honor anybody and everybody from York County.”

Frantz reported that the committee working on the memorial wanted to focus on those who died in the theater of war.
Despite this adjustment, the number of 20th and 21st century York County war deaths still top 1,000.
Big numbers.
Big sacrifice.
And visit this post to find the names of those in the military who died in the Vietnam War era.
Also of interest:
– All York Town Square war posts from the start.
– Ydr.com’s military and veterans affairs page.