Memorial MIle

Memorial Mile is a recent event hosted by Chapter 14. The mile stretches down 8th Avenue in Gainesville and is a Memorial Day experience you don’t want to miss. the reality of War becomes a little more apparent as you pass row after row of the over 6000 tombstones that memorialize the US soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In addition the 2011 Memorial shown here included a quilt display that remembered both American soldiers and civilians whose deaths vastly outnumber those of our military. Vets for peace honors and remembers these deaths along with our own, all victims of the same war

The photos are from 2011 because of the rain. I don’t have very many photos from 2012 when along with many families and citizens, our memorial was visited by a Tropical Storm. Anyone with photos please contact the webmaster at vfpgainesville@gmail.com. In order to fully experience this display you need to participate. VFP Gainesville will be looking for volunteers next Spring to do it all over again. We keep hoping we won’t have to put this up again but every year there are more deaths and every year more families visit the Memorial looking for thier own special tombstone and leaving the mementos you see in the slide show.