Memorial Bricks Have Story To Tell

“How many Germans did you kill in World War II,” I asked my father once.

I was disappointed that the answer was none. In fact, he was pretty sure that he never fired a gun in combat even though he had followed George Patton across North Africa and up through Italy. I
Lt. William J. Carroll was actually a member of the Army signal corps and had responsibility for a small unit that operated radar equipment from the back of a truck.

Lt. Carroll met Lt. Mary J. Lynch, my future mother, in the officer’s mess on a ship somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean. He admitted that he had volunteered for watch because he’d get to eat first and more importantly he’d get to eat with the nurses. The plan obviously worked.

Lt. Lynch enlisted in the Army out of nursing school and spent the next year working under extreme conditions in operating rooms in places like Algiers, Palermo and Naples. A family friend observed that my mother saw more action than most GI’s because the nurses were needed most where the fighting was the worst.

“I’d be rich if I had a nickel for every marriage proposal I heard during the war,” she once said.
John A. Brownrigg, an aviation machinist third class and my future father-in-law, enlisted in the Navy in 1944 at the age of 17. He bounced around naval air stations and land bases from late 1944 – 1946 eventually ending up at Orote Point, Guam.

“I showed up looking for my unit and they had shipped out,” he told me one night. “I asked the Marines at the base what I should do and they suggested I look busy so I kept busy.”

The war had ended and the Marines were obviously more fixed on getting home than keeping Navy machinist third class John Brownrigg busy. He shipped home shortly after that.

Besides military service, these three relatives of mine have one more thing in common…they all have an engraved brick placed in their honor at the new Allen Veteran’s Memorial.

The memorial, which is located at Bethany Lakes Park, will be dedicated on Memorial Day starting at 11:30 a.m.

The project was first proposed in 2002 by the Leadership Allen Class XV, according to Larry Nordgaard, a member of the class and also a member of local VFW Post #215.

“We found a lot of people who liked the idea but funding was difficult to find,” he explained. “The CDC (Community Development Corporation) Board first funded the architectural work and later stepped forward with funding for the whole project in 2008.”

The memorial includes five 17’ obelisks representing branches of the Armed Services along with a flagpole, benches and a brick wall. Families may purchase engraved bricks for the wall or the patio surrounding the flagpole.

The Allen Veterans Memorial Committee has sold 21 larger bricks and 47 smaller ones which have been installed for the dedication. Bricks will continue to be sold for installation by Veteran’s Day in November.

“Our purpose is to preserve the memory and honor those who served,” says Nordgaard. “The bricks honor some currently serving in the military and others who served as long ago as World War I.”

There are currently 68 engraved bricks in the Allen Veterans Memorial. There is a story behind every name on those bricks and we appreciate Larry Nordgaard, the Leadership Allen Class #15, the CDC Board and the City of Allen for giving us a place to remember them.