Oregon Vietnam Veterans Living Memorial
December 5, 2008
Charlie Bader

In early December 2008, I flew from Texas to Oregon to visit Roger King and Rick Rockholt for a few days.

After Roger picked me up at the airport, he took me to see the Oregon Vietnam Veterans Living Memorial in Portland's Washington Park. It’s an outdoor memorial to Oregon residents who died or are missing in action during the Vietnam War.

The memorial was dedicated in 1987 and its slightly over 3 acres consists of a beautiful landscaped bowl containing lawns, flowers and low hedges surrounded by a mixture of tall trees. Along the upward 1,200 foot spiral path are five black granite curved monuments which name soldiers killed and one additional monument for the missing. The monuments effectively shows the progression of the war - a slow beginning in 1959 building to the apex in 1968 - 1969 then decreasing to the end in 1975.

As Roger and I walked the path and looked at some of the 801 names on the memorial, all of a sudden I recognized a name – Grant Henjyoji of D Company, 2/12^th Cavalry who was killed March 8, 1969 at LZ Grant.

This led to a discussion of how many men from the 12^th Cav are listed on the memorial. After we arrived at Roger’s home in Lincoln City we researched our Vietnam casualties and found eight men from the 12^th Cavalry Regiment are listed on the Oregon Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

Here are their names:

May they rest in peace.

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