Bingham County invites you to honor local veterans during ceremony Wednesday
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BLACKFOOT – Residents of Bingham County and surrounding communities are invited to remember their fallen heroes this Independence Day.
The county is unveiling the “Wall of Names.” The Wall of Names is a list of 115 people from Bingham County who died during wartime or are listed as missing in action. It is located inside Blackfoot’s Patriot Field Veterans Memorial.
This wall is the second phase of the new veteran’s memorial, which began last year as a way to pay tribute to local veterans.
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Paul Loomis, a volunteer with the Patriot Field Veterans Memorial, tells EastIdahoNews.com the idea for this memorial originated from a small plaque inside the courthouse.
“It listed (300) people who had served in Bingham County. It was a small plaque that was really overlooked by most people,” says Loomis. “That’s when Scott Summers, who worked on the maintenance staff for Bingham County (at the time) thought there ought to be a more fitting memorial.”
Patriot Field was landscaped and completed in 2016 with funding from the county and the Blackfoot Urban Renewal Association.
Following the completion of the field, Bingham County Clerk Pam Eckhardt says learning the background of the people listed on the plaque became the next focus. It was a two year project that grew to include 7,800 names. Those names are listed on the Patriot Field website.
“Putting a face to the names (on the plaque) has been the most gratifying part of this,” Eckhardt says. “It’s been touching to meet their families and to see the response from the community.”
The unveiling ceremony kicks off at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday with a musical performance from the Blackfoot Firefighter’s Pipes and Drum Unit. Following an opening narration from “Sounds of Sunday” radio host Carl Watkins and a performance of the National Anthem, Stewart Portelo, a teacher at Firth High School and author of several books about veterans from eastern Idaho, will speak.
All 115 names will be read during the unveiling. The ceremony will then conclude with a dedicatory prayer and a 21 gun salute.
Loomis says the 30 to 45 minute ceremony is a solemn opportunity to remember veterans who made the ultimate sacrifice for freedom.
“The best way for us to (pass those freedoms on) to our children is through monuments like this to help us remember their service. I think it’s important that these type of monuments are holy places for future generations.”
The third phase of the veteran memorial will be the addition of a 7-foot statue depicting a soldier presenting a flag to two young children, which Loomis says is a poignant representation of the passing of freedom to a new generation. Bingham County sculptor Ben Hammond is creating the statue.
The county has raised $97,000 of the total $120,000 needed for the statue. As fundraising efforts wind down this month, Loomis says they plan to unveil Hammond’s sculpture in the center of the memorial on Memorial Day next spring.
The Patriot Field Veterans Memorial is located at 355 North Ash in Blackfoot across from Deseret Industries.