History of the New Jersey Vietnam Veterans' Memorial

The New Jersey Vietnam Veterans' Memorial and the Vietnam Era Educational Center are companion projects that compliment one another.  The memorial honors the sacrifices made by New Jersey residents who gave their lives while serving in Southeast Asia and, at the same time, pays tribute to all who have served.  Its companion project, the educational center, provides a setting in which to present factual, accurate and unbiased information about the Vietnam era and the veterans who served during that time period (1959-1975).

The idea for the New Jersey Vietnam Veterans' Memorial had its beginnings on Veterans Day, November 11,1982.  A contingent of NJ veterans attending the dedication of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington realized the need for just such a memorial in the State of New Jersey.  Working with state legislators, veterans and community groups, and individuals too numerous to list, they saw the process begin to take shape over the next 3 years.

On January 21, 1986, Governor Tom Kean signed into law the bill that created a 14 member NJ Vietnam Veterans' Memorial Committee.  The committee's charter was to select a suitable location for the construction, conduct a competition for the design of a memorial honoring New Jersey's veterans of the Vietnam conflict, determine methods of financing the construction, and to initiate fundraising.  Included in the bill was a one-time grant of $25,000 to fund the design contest.

In the spring of 1986, the committee selected the 5.5-acre site on the grounds of the Garden State Arts Center in Holmdel, Monmouth County, from a list of 6 possible sites from across New Jersey.  Dedication ceremonies were held at the site in the spring of 1987.  A design contest was held from the spring of 1987 to the spring of 1988, drawing 421 entries that were judged by a select panel of experts from the arts, historic, and veterans communities in NJ.

On July 7, 1988, the design submitted by Hien Nguyen, a refugee who left South Vietnam thirteen years earlier, was unveiled.  Hien's design contains a 200-foot diameter open-air pavilion, inside of which are 366 black granite panels.  Each panel represents one day of the year.  Each panel is engraved with the name, date of birth and date of casualty of each New Jerseyan killed or missing on that date.  There are presently 1,556 names on these 366 panels.

The center of the pavilion contains NJ's state tree, the Red Oak, symbolizing the state from which the servicemen and women came.  Placed under the tree's canopy are 3 statues -- one symbolizing all who served and came home, one symbolizing the women who served, and one honoring those who did not return.

The New Jersey Vietnam Veterans' Memorial Foundation was created and incorporated under the laws of the State of New Jersey as a non-profit organization in September 1987 to assist the committee in building the memorial.  The memorial committee continued in an oversight capacity but relied primarily on the foundation's officers, trustees, executive director, and volunteers to pursue the many day-to-day needs of the individual elements of the projects.

Groundbreaking ceremonies were held at the site with Governor Tom Kean on May 7, 1989, with veterans groups, family members, and state and local officials in attendance.  It would take another two and half years until sufficient funds were raised to start the initial phase of the memorial's construction.

During 1990-1991, design concepts were solicited from NJ's sculpting community for the three statues included in the memorial design.  The work of Thomas Jay Warren, formerly of Trenton, was chosen and unveiled at ceremonies in the State House Annex in Trenton, in May 1991.

The first phase of construction began on November 19, 1991.  Ceremonies on that day were attended by Governor Jim Florio and hundreds of veterans and family members, all of whom witnessed a bulldozer's first cut into the earth.  This phase would see the excavation of thousands of cubic yards of earth, the pouring of 1,000 cubic yards of concrete for the memorial's foundation, inner structure and the outer ringtail, and the beginnings of initial landscape work.  This first phase of work continued through 1992 and 1993, stopping only during the winter months.

The various construction phases of the Memorial lasted more than four years.  As new money was raised to support the construction, another phase of the Memorial was completed.  Finally in the fall of 1994, the final phase of construction began and a target date of May 7, 1995 was set to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the end of the war.

In the meantime, during 1993 and 1994, preliminary planning began for the memorial's companion project, the Vietnam Era Educational Center.  The Foundation's Educational Center Planning Committee, comprised of NJ historians, museum professionals, veterans, and educators, adopted a master plan for the education center in March 1994.  From this master plan, details were developed that would define the center's content and programs.