The Oregon Vietnam Veterans Memorial is a 3.25 acre (30k m²) outdoor memorial dedicated to Oregonians who served in the Vietnam War. It is located in Portland, Oregon's Washington Park at 45°30′43″N 122°43′07″W / 45.5120°N 122.71857°W / 45.5120; -122.71857. The memorial was dedicated in 1987, inspired in 1982 by visits to the national Vietnam Veterans Memorial by five veterans and the parents of a Marine killed in Vietnam. Walker and Macy of Portland designed the memorial.
The memorial is wheelchair accessible and consists of a 1200 foot (370 m) spiral path within an immaculately landscaped bowl containing lawns, flowers and low hedges surrounded by a mixture of tall trees. Along the path are understated monuments which name soldiers killed or missing. Each monument is year specific and effectively communicates the progression of the war: a slow beginning escalating to a crescendo then diminishing before the end.
It is accessible by U.S. Route 26 and by Portland's MAX Light Rail system, which has a station nearby.
The memorial is located between Hoyt Arboretum and the World Forestry Center and near the Oregon Zoo. The adjacent trail system connects to Forest Park, and is close to the International Rose Test Garden and Portland Japanese Garden.
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Entrance
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Garden of Solace
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amphitheater and first memorial
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1959 through 1964
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amphitheater and last memorial
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Overlook
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“When Paul Bunyan’s loggers roofed an Oregon bunkhouse with shakes, fog was so thick that they shingled forty feet into space before discovering they had passed the last rafter.”
—State of Oregon, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“I was proud of the youths who opposed the war in Vietnam because they were my babies.”
—Benjamin Spock (b. 1903)
“[Veterans] feel disappointed, not about the 1914-1918 war but about this war. They liked that war, it was a nice war, a real war a regular war, a commenced war and an ended war. It was a war, and veterans like a war to be a war. They do.”
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