Large war monument, 'memorial experience' bound for Piedmont Park

After years of fundraising and behind-the-scenes efforts, the City of Atlanta is finally getting a proper tribute to local veterans of the Vietnam War who made the ultimate sacrifice, according to project leaders.

Construction is underway in Piedmont Park on a large tribute sculpture, plaza, and commemorative wall called the Sons of Atlanta Vietnam War Monument and Memorial Experience. It’s being installed near the park’s northernmost Piedmont Avenue entrance, just west of the Active Oval.

According to the Sons of Atlanta, the project will recognize 240 residents of Atlanta and Fulton County who were killed in action in the Vietnam War.

Site work for the Vietnam War memorial in Piedmont Park today. Josh Green/Urbanize Atlanta

Sons of Atlanta Vietnam War Memorial Task Force/Fowler Design Associates

Those veterans’ names are “memorialized in the Georgia State Memorial Park across from the state capital building… in downtown Atlanta, and on the National Vietnam War Memorial Wall in Washington DC, but nowhere in the City of Atlanta is there a memorial with the Atlanta City Seal for these highest status patriots,” notes a project overview.

Back in early 2019, the Atlanta City Council adopted a resolution to establish the monument and memorial, working alongside the Atlanta Commission on Veterans Affairs and the 1118th Chapter of Vietnam Veterans of America. The Fulton County Commission followed suit later that year.

The latter 2019 proclamation noted that Atlanta “is the only major city in the nation that doesn’t have a memorial site for those killed in the Vietnam War.”

A commemorative brick campaign for fundraising is ongoing.

Plans for the memorial and walls honoring 240 Atlanta and Fulton County residents. Sons of Atlanta Vietnam War Memorial Task Force/Fitzgerald Collaborative