Vietnam POW & MIA Memorial

Ten Utah servicemen went missing in Southeast Asia and never came home, their fates unresolved—the particular cruelty of the POW and MIA story. The Utah League of Families of those prisoners and missing men set a plaque here in the late 1970s, and the park's Horizon Committee planted a tree for each of the ten. A second plaque followed in 1979, carrying their names, ranks, branches, and the dates they vanished. Ten trees, ten names—a memorial built around an absence that was never filled in.

What the plaque says

IN HONOR OF THOSE UNACCOUNTED FOR IN THE VIET NAM WAR GY SGT. JOHN DINGWALL, USMC MIA JULY 8, 1965 CAPT. DON C. WOOD, USAF MIA JAN. 16, 1966 CAPT. FRANKLIN A. CARAS, USAF MIA APR. 28, 1967 COL. MARK L. STEPHENSEN, USAF MIA APR. 29, 1967 CAPT. RICHARD H. VAN DYKE, USAF MIA SEPT. 11, 1968 CAPT. ROBERT A. REX, USAF MIA DEC. 8, 1968 1 LT. CLIVE G. JEFFS, USAF MIA MAR. 12, 1971 1 LT. BRUCE C. WALKER, USAF MIA APR. 7, 1972 1 LT. MIKE CHRISTENSEN, USMC MIA APR. 13, 1972 CAPT. JAMES CHIPMAN, USMC MIA DEC. 27, 1972

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Salt Lake City — 0.6 mi
  Utah's capital and largest city — where the Wasatch Range meets the Great Salt Lake.
• Temple Square — 0.7 mi
  The spiritual and architectural heart of Salt Lake City
• Ensign Peak — 0.8 mi
  A short hike to the spot where Brigham Young surveyed the valley
• Liberty Park — 2.4 mi
  Salt Lake Citys beloved 80-acre urban park since 1882

More markers nearby

• Captain James B. Austin (WWI) — steps away
• Freedom Trail Monuments — steps away
• Stone Bridge — steps away
• Army 145th Field Artillery Monument — steps away