Vietnam War Memorial

Among the markers in Vernal's veterans memorial is this one for Vietnam — a war that came home to small towns differently than the ones before it. The men who fought it returned to a divided country and, often, to silence rather than parades, and the memorials to them tended to come later, once the nation had reckoned a little more honestly with what it had asked of them. This is one of those reckonings, set in a remote Uinta Basin town that sent its young to that war and got some of them back changed.

What the plaque says

VIETNAM DECEMBER 11. 1961 – MARCH 29. 1973 AITKEN, DEAN C CUCH, WILBERT WAYNE DE HERRERA, BENJAMIN D FRANCKE, RONALD E GARDINER, ROY WILLIAM HALL, GARY DODDS HEIN, RICHARD AUGUST NICK, OTIS LEE PERCIVAL, ALTON D ROBERTS, RONNY DEAN UFFORD, ROBERT LYNN WALKER, LESLIE ELROY

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Vernal — steps away
  The self-proclaimed Dinosaur Capital of Utah
• Utah Field House of Natural History — steps away
  A dinosaur museum with life-size replicas in an outdoor garden
• Steinaker State Park — 4.2 mi
  A warm-water reservoir popular for swimming in the desert heat
• McConkie Ranch Petroglyphs — 6.5 mi
  Massive Fremont-era rock art panels on private ranch land open to visitors

More markers nearby

• American Mother Veterans War Memorial — steps away
• Men of Courage Monument (WWII) — steps away
• Operation Desert Storm Memorial — steps away
• World War I Memorial — steps away