WWII memorial celebrates phase 1 dedication in Royal Oak

ROYAL OAK — The date of Aug. 10 marked the dedication of phase 1 of the Michigan World War II Legacy Memorial in Royal Oak.

The ceremony was held at Memorial Park, 31050 Woodward Ave., where hundreds of veterans, residents and others looking to pay their respects to those who served attended.

Phase 1 work on the memorial included 1,400 bricks for its Walk of Honor, flagpoles for each service branch, footings for the Wall of Stars and future “Sea” and “Air” statue scenes, the first two boulders in the War in Words, and the installation of “Joe” on the war front portion of the “Land” scene.

President of the WWII Legacy Memorial John Maten said that if he could summarize the installation in one word, it would be “connection.”

“How does this memorial help us do that? The statue of a soldier reading a letter from home in the memorial exemplifies this in many ways. Those letters were the instruments that allowed the soldiers and the family to stay connected as best they could,” he said. He also pointed out a quote on the statue from Cpl. Aarol W. “Bud” Irish, of Hemlock, that in part reads, “I can’t even start to explain how much the letter means over here. Just keep the letters coming and I’ll do the rest.”

Future work planned for the memorial includes a goal to raise $300,000 to build the Wall of Stars, which would honor the 15,458 Michigan lives lost during World War II.

Maten noted the statue of a soldier reading a letter was modeled after the father of the sculptor, Larry Halbert, and that there are plans to make another scene a ways from the statue that would represent the parents of that soldier.

“The reason we put it (away from the statue) is to represent the distance between the homefront and the war front, and that continuous connection that they had by way of their letters,” he said. “Another connection it makes is across the generations. As we lay down these paver bricks, we read the stories of the greatest generation. As we watch people find the bricks of loved ones, we see the emotions well and a memory come to life. You don’t even have to know the person to feel a connection to them.”

Helping celebrate the dedication were two veterans of World War II, Art Fishman and Frances Masters.

Fishman, a Navy veteran, remembered standing in the park 10 years ago when he was first told about the plans to create a memorial. He said he’s been able to see the national World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C., and that his next goal was to live long enough to see this memorial.

“As you walk through these bricks, you’re walking with the Greatest Generation,” he said.

Masters was a Rosie the Riveter at the Willow Run bomber plant, which she joined right after high school. Her two brothers and future husband also served in the war. She noted that her husband served in Iwo Jima and her oldest brother was in the Battle of the Bulge, though he sadly didn’t come back home.

“I did my job riveting airplanes. … I lost about 10 pounds and gained 20 of muscle,” she said. “I did that throughout the war and I would do it again. I have no regrets.”

Mark Reed, a member of both the Marines and Navy who served in Desert Storm, was taking in the memorial and Walk of Honor. He said the memorial was “long overdue.”

“I’m particularly interested in seeing that there are a lot of different things represented here,” he said. “It’s not simply the Army, Navy, Marines, whatever, but there’s a lot of civic organizations that are represented here as well, and a lot of civilian folks that contributed to the war effort in World War II as well — you know, the Rosie the Riveters and the people that worked in the automotive industry. You’ll see bricks commemorating them too. So it’s a good, long overdue memorial.”