Vietnam Veterans Memorial

[Roll of Honored Dead]

Description of the Sculpture for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

This Monument of the Vietnam War Memorial for Luzerne County is a depiction of a heavy gauge bronze sculpture with a natural sulfide bronehantite patina set atop a slate base. The base is 10' long, 6' 10" wide, 2' high. The sculpture atop measures 10' high, for a total of 12' from the ground. The figure of the valiant veteran is 8' 5" tall from toe to head, or 1.43 times life size.

The warrior, wearing combat fatigue pants and boots holds a broken K-Bar Knife and stands atop the shield - the Keystone of Pennsylvania, an allegory to the return of the spartan soldier to the intonation "with it or on it." In the figure's left hand is a crown of stars symbolizing the branches of the Armed Services taken from the brow - his head turned in grief.

Behind the figure stands the symbols of Vietnam, which is pierced by pungee sticks, a barbaric guerrilla warfare weapon utilized in Southeast Asia. There is one spear for each 3 years of our involvement in this war. These symbolize the enslavement of Vietnam in the Bamboo Curtain of Communism, the misery of this country at its loss of liberty, our sons and brothers whose blood was spilled on her soil, the Prisoners of War and the Missing In Action, the imprisoned and those who have never returned. The spaces between the pungee sticks symbolize the IV Corps of Action in Vietnam.

The slate base is set at 17 degrees to the ground, the parallel of the latitude of the partition between North and South Vietnam on our entrance to the war. Upon the base of this monumental sculpture are the names of our native sons who gave their lives in the Action.

Gerhard Francis Baut, B.F.A. Am di Venezia