Ceremony will remember 41 soldiers still missing
By Steve Herring
Published in News on September 6, 2016 1:46 PM
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News-Argus/SETH COMBS
This is an artist's rendering of the proposed POW/MIA monument at the Wayne County Veterans Memorial.
PIKEVILLE -- Dennis Lewis wants people to remember the 41 North Carolina Vietnam veterans still missing in action -- particularly the three from Wayne County.
On Saturday, Sept. 17, Lewis will erect 41 crosses next to his Pikeville home not only to remember the veterans, but to serve as a springboard for two other projects -- a new memorial and scholarships -- to help ensure the veterans are never forgotten.
Lewis did not serve in the military, but has deep and abiding respect for those who did.
"The first time I went to the (Vietnam Veterans Memorial) Wall, I went with an individual who did serve," Lewis said. "There was a guy there who did not have an arm. I asked him what happened to his arm, and he said he gave it away for my freedom That and a lot more have been done for my freedom and everybody else's. The very least that we can do is remember.
"I always have felt it is important to remember these men. Every year I try to do something to do that. This year I am erecting white crosses with yellow ribbons with their names on them. There are 41 still missing from Vietnam from North Carolina."
Lewis will erect the crosses around 9 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 17, followed by a brief ceremony at 11 a.m.
The crosses will be placed at 786 Perkins Road, Pikeville, on the lot next to Lewis' house.
The public is invited to the free event.
Lewis said he has one Boy Scout troop and a church youth group lined up to help, but would like to have one more of each.
The event comes one day after the National POW/MIA League of Families' POW/MIA Day that is always on the third Friday in every September, he said.
"For that one day some people stop and remember, but for the most part life goes on," he said.
Lewis said he plans to leave the crosses up for a week. He said he would pack them up. He said he expects the display to become an annual event.
"The thing for me is the three people still missing from Wayne County -- Murray Lyman Borden (Goldsboro), Edgar Felton Davis, he is from Grantham, and then there is Joseph Nelson Hargrove," Lewis said. "He is from Mount Olive."
Lewis said he is hopeful that relatives of the men will attend the ceremony.
"Going back to World War I, the estimate is 83,000 still missing, unaccounted for," he said. "If you go into Willow Dale Cemetery to the right there is tombstone that has a kid's name on it and underneath it, it says, 'Not here. Buried somewhere on a battlefield in France.' For that reason it is important to me to remember."
The project will serve as a springboard for efforts to erect a POW/MIA monument at the Wayne County Veterans Memorial and the creation of scholarships at Wayne Community College in memory of Borden, Davis and Hargrove.
Lewis said he has been told that $75,000 would be needed annually for the scholarships.
Lewis already has a sketch of what the black granite monument would look like. It would cost about $12,500.
"The eagle at the bottom -- the eagle is out of character when it is on the ground," Lewis said. "He is majestic when he is in the air. You have a chain where he has been chained to this stake symbolizing our imprisoned soldiers.
"But the chain is broken under the belief that one day all of our soldier will be home. They deserve to be walking home or buried in American soil."
Lewis said he has not gotten a final cost for the eagle but expects it will be around $8,000.
Any money remaining will be donated to Wayne Community College for the scholarships, he said
Gordon Combs of McLamb Monument will be approaching the committee that looks after the Wayne County Veterans Memorial across Walnut Street from the Wayne County Courthouse to ask for permission to build the monument, Lewis said.
"We will raise the funds for it," Lewis said. "It won't cost the taxpayers anything."
The Wayne County Veterans and Patriots Coalition will work with Combs on the project, he said.
Lewis has purchased a dune buggy that will be given away as fundraiser to help pay for the monument. Tickets are $100 each.
Wayne County Veterans and Patriots Coalition publicity chairman Vic Miller said he hopes to have the tickets by next week and to sell 300 tickets by next may an have the drawing on Memorial Day.
For more information, contact Miller at 210-862-3372 or Bill Graham at 919-394-2200.
"My hope is just to get folks to remember," Lewis said. "If nothing happens beyond that, at least I did something."