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Veterans, Relatives, and Friends, "Attention, Salute"
by Louis Conerly

Now is the time for a salute to the veterans of Walthall County by their relatives and
friends and by their fellow veterans. The purchase of bricks in honor of veterans is an
excellent way to accomplish this. If your dad is a veteran, you could also add a brick to
your Father's Day gift list.

Living veterans may reason, "You don't salute yourself, so why should I buy a brick with
my name on it?" The answer is that in order to construct a representative map/
monument in the shape of Walthall County in Holmes Water Park, the inclusion of a brick
with your name is needed. Look at it this way, when you add a brick with your name, it is
also a salute to your fellow veterans.

Isn't the list of veterans on the wall of the Walthall County Courthouse adequate? You
decide. This list contains approximately 3,000 names on plastic tape with gold stars by
veterans who were killed in service, no other information is given. I needed a stepladder
to read the names at the top of the lists. This list will remain in place.

On the other hand, the three lines on the 4 x 8 inch brick will provide the following
information:

Last name and rank (optional), first and middle name, the service and years of service.

The six lines on the 8 x 8 inch square will contain the above and add three lines for other
significant service information such as Purple Heart, POW, major location, ship, or
battles.

As a part of this project, Walthall County Post 56 of The American Legion will provide an
8 x 8 inch square for veterans who were killed or died in service. An example of such a
square follows:

COOPER CPL, REUBEN COLLINS, MARINE AIR CORP, KILLED IN 1943, IN SOUTH PACIFIC.
This can be compared with the list on the Courthouse wall that says, "COLLINS
COOPER" with a gold star attached.

Many Walthall County veterans already have their names on bricks that are included in
other monuments and may question why they also need their name on a brick on this
monument.

A unique feature of this Walthall County map/monument will be that, if requested,
veterans of a family may be grouped together. Then, when viewers find one veteran of
the family, others will be there also.

Application forms for bricks have been printed in several issues of the Tylertown Times
and are available at local banks and a number of other businesses. Or if you call me at
(601) 876-6131, I'll mail you one.

I urge you to do this promptly, as we need to anticipate the number of bricks that will be
sold in order to determine the size of the concrete slab needed to support these bricks.








		SP4 Ira L. Garner, killed in 1967 in Vietnam.