Washington General’s Award for Home of Record

A critical analysis of the Vietnam War has long since been left to historians. But what still is important today is honoring those soldiers left standing, and those who lost their lives fighting in the jungles of Vietnam. On 1st Friday, October 7, 2011, Vashon-Maury Island Heritage Museum did just that through their exhibit, Home of Record: Vashon and the Vietnam War.

The small museum was filled to capacity with soldiers, their families and their friends. A special tribute was made to the 12 soldiers from Vashon Island who perished in Vietnam.

During the opening, former Sergeant Chris Gaynor, a Vietnam Veteran and co-curator of the exhibit, was presented a plaque for VMIHM by the Association of Washington Generals. The Association is an organization governed by a board of directors including the governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of state and others. Its purpose is to formally recognize individual’s outstanding service to the state and bring them together into a service organization. The crowd was touched by Chris’s acceptance speech. And when he called out the names of the twelve fallen Vashon soldiers, followed by a moment of silence, those in the room became the collective conscious for all who have lost love ones through war.

Together, local historian and museum board member, Dr. Bruce Haulman and Chris Gaynor created a thought provoking exhibit which includes Chris’s personal trove of pictures taken in Vietnam from 1967 to 1968 and the letters he wrote home during his time in Vietnam. The exhibit also includes a Roll of Honor for all our Vietnam Era military veterans, and a Wall of Remembrance. There is an interactive map of Vietnam where veterans can identify where they served, where Vietnamese-Americans can identify their family’s place of origin, and where visitors to Vietnam can identify their travels.

To honor Vashon veterans, on Thursday November 10, the evening before Veterans Day, at 7:00 PM at the Vashon-Maury Land Trust Building, the Heritage Museum is sponsoring "Women and the Vietnam War" a talk by Dr. Marianne Jacobs who served as a nurse in Vietnam during the war, was on the Vietnam Women’s Memorial Committee, and is a noted anthropologist who studies the role of women in the Vietnam War.

The Vashon-Maury Island Heritage Museum exhibit Home of Record: Vashon and the Vietnam War will run through February 2012. For questions contact:

Vashon-Maury Island Heritage Association
10105 Bank Road SW
PO Box 723
Vashon Island, Washington 98070
206-463-7808
admin@vashonheritage.org