 The North Wall | |
 | |
| 42°18′37.36″N083°04′11.06″W / 42.3103778°N 83.0697389°W | |
| Location | Windsor, Ontario, Canada |
|---|---|
| Type | War memorial |
| Opening date | July 2, 1995 |
The North Wall, also known as the Canadian Vietnam Veterans Memorial, is a war memorial in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. The monument was erected on July 2, 1995 in honour of the Canadian veterans who were killed in action, made prisoners of war, or declared missing in action during the Vietnam War.
There are 147 names currently listed as casualties of known Canadian origin on the North Wall, with 7 listed as POW/MIA. The monument is 14 ft (4.3 m) wide, 11 ft (3.4 m) tall, and weighs 3 tons. The inscription reads:
As long as we live, you shall live.
As long as we live,
You shall be remembered.
As long as we live, you shall be loved.
The monument is in Assumption Park directly across from Detroit, Michigan under the Ambassador Bridge, which spans from Detroit to Windsor.
Canada was officially a non-belligerent during the Vietnam War. However, around 30,000 Canadian citizens enlisted with the United States Armed Forces in order to serve during the Vietnam War. [1] [2] These Canadians had to list a U.S city as their place of birth or residence because the Canadian Foreign Enlistment Act (1937) states: "Any person who being a Canadian national, whether within or residing outside Canada voluntarily accepts or agrees to accept any commission or engagement in the armed forces of any foreign state at war with any friendly state, is guilty of an offense of this act."[ citation needed ]
In 1986, the Canadian Vietnam Veterans' Welcome Home Committee was formed by American Vietnam War veterans Ric Gidner and Ed Johnson. Gidner and Johnson were inspired by Canadian Vietnam Veterans that they met during the 1980s, and formed the committee to have a monument created and dedicated to the Canadian veterans. The Committee was later renamed the Michigan Association of Concerned Veterans (MACV). Gidner, Johnson, and Chris Reynolds formed committees with Canadian organizations and campaigned to have the Canadian federal government erect a memorial in the capital, Ottawa, Ontario. In 1994, however, a Bill to erect the memorial failed to pass through Parliament. In the meantime, the members of the MACV used private funds to pay for building a memorial from black granite, the same material used for the United States' Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. In 1995, the office of the Mayor of Windsor, Michael Hurst, contacted MACV about locating the memorial in Windsor. The City Council of Windsor passed the initiative, and the memorial was dedicated on July 2. Canadian and American veterans' organizations attended the dedication, as did Canadian Senator Jack Marshall and Michael Hurst. [3]
Every year since the opening dedication in 1995, a ceremony and laying of wreaths has been officiated over and attended by prominent Canadian and U.S officials, veterans on both sides of the border, family members of those whose names are on the memorial, and supporters of the project. [4]
The Vietnam Veterans Memorial, commonly called the Vietnam Memorial, is a U.S. national memorial in Washington, D.C., honoring service members of the U.S. armed forces who served in the Vietnam War. The two-acre (8,100 m2) site is dominated by two black granite walls engraved with the names of those service members who died or remain missing as a result of their service in Vietnam and South East Asia during the war. The Wall, completed in 1982, has since been supplemented with the statue Three Soldiers in 1984 and the Vietnam Women's Memorial in 1993.
A cenotaph is an empty tomb or a monument erected in honour of a person or group of people whose remains are elsewhere. It can also be the initial tomb for a person who has since been reinterred elsewhere. Although the vast majority of cenotaphs honour individuals, many noted cenotaphs are instead dedicated to the memories of groups of individuals, such as the lost soldiers of a country or of an empire.
Queen's Park is an urban park in Downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Opened in 1860 by Edward, Prince of Wales, it was named in honour of Queen Victoria. The park is the site of the Ontario Legislative Building, which houses the Legislative Assembly of Ontario. The phrase "Queen's Park" is regularly used as a metonym for the Government of Ontario or the Legislative Assembly of Ontario.
The Korean War Veterans Memorial is located in Washington, D.C.'s West Potomac Park, southeast of the Lincoln Memorial and just south of the Reflecting Pool on the National Mall. It memorializes those who served in the Korean War (1950–1953). The national memorial was dedicated in 1995. It includes 19 statues representing U.S. military personnel in action. In 2022, the memorial was expanded to include a granite memorial wall, engraved with the names of U.S. military personnel who died in the war.
A war memorial is a building, monument, statue, or other edifice to celebrate a war or victory, or to commemorate those who died or were injured in a war.
Canada did not officially participate in the Vietnam War. However, it contributed to peacekeeping forces in 1973 to help enforce the Paris Peace Accords.
The Mackenzie–Papineau Battalion or Mac-Paps were a battalion of Canadians who fought as part of the XV International Brigade on the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War in the late 1930s. Except for France, no other country had a greater proportion of its population volunteer in Spain as did Canada. The XV International Brigade, made up also of volunteer battalions from the United States and Britain, was involved in the Battle of Jarama, in which nine Canadians are known to have been killed.
The Vietnam Women's Memorial is a memorial dedicated to the nurses and women of the United States who served in the Vietnam War. It depicts three uniformed women with a wounded male soldier and serves as a reminder of the important support and caregiving roles that women played in the war as nurses and other specialists. It is part of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and is located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., a short distance south of The Wall and north of the Reflecting Pool. The statues are bronze and the base is made of granite. Glenna Goodacre sculpted the memorial after being selected by the United States Commission of Fine Arts and the National Capital Planning Commission, two groups that had previously rejected the idea for a memorial to women.
The National War Memorial, titled The Response, is a tall, granite memorial arch with accreted bronze sculptures in Ottawa, Ontario, designed by Vernon March and first dedicated by King George VI in 1939. Originally built to commemorate the Canadians who died in the First World War, it was in 1982 rededicated to also include those killed in the Second World War and Korean War and again in 2014 to add the dead from the Second Boer War and War in Afghanistan, as well as all Canadians killed in all conflicts past and future. It now serves as the pre-eminent war memorial of 76 cenotaphs in Canada. In 2000, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier was added in front of the memorial and symbolizes the sacrifices made by all Canadians who have died or may yet die for their country.
Confederation Park(French: Parc de la Confédération) is a public park and National Historic Site of Canada, located in the downtown core of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It is bordered on the south by Laurier Avenue and Ottawa City Hall; on the east by the Rideau Canal and National Defence Headquarters; on the north by the Mackenzie King Bridge, the Rideau Centre and the National Arts Centre; and to the west by Elgin Street and the Lord Elgin Hotel.
The Korea Veterans Association of Canada erected a Wall of Remembrance to the 516 Canadians who are commemorated in the Korean War Book of Remembrance.
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Canadian war memorials are buildings, monuments, and statues that commemorate the armed actions in the territory encompassing modern Canada, the role of the Canadian military in conflicts and peacekeeping operations, and Canadians who died or were injured in a war. Much of this military history of Canada is commemorated today with memorials across the country and around the world. Canadian memorials commemorate the sacrifices made as early as the Seven Years' War to the modern day War on Terror. As Newfoundland was a British Dominion until joining Confederation in 1949, there are several monuments in Newfoundland and Labrador and abroad which were dedicated to Newfoundland servicemen and women.
Philip A. Hart Plaza, in downtown Detroit, is a city plaza along the Detroit River. It is located more or less on the site at which Antoine Laumet de La Mothe, sieur de Cadillac landed in 1701 when he founded Fort Pontchartrain du Détroit, the settlement that became Detroit. In 2011, the Detroit-Wayne County Port Authority opened its new cruise ship passenger terminal and dock at Hart Plaza, adjacent to the Renaissance Center, which receives major cruise ships such as the MS Hamburg and the Yorktown.
The Animals in War Memorial is a memorial sculpture located at Confederation Park in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It commemorates animals used by the Canadian military in conflicts since the Second Boer War.
The Augusta-Central Savannah River Area (CSRA) Vietnam War Veterans Memorial is a granite and bronze monument placed in Augusta, Georgia, March 29, 2019, to honor the CSRA's 169 Vietnam War dead, three Ex-Prisoners of War (Vietnam), and one former Missing in Action (MIA) as well as the region's 15,000 surviving Vietnam War Veterans. The memorial is located in the "Olde Town" section of Augusta, Georgia, on the Broad Street median between Third and Fourth Streets. The monument was designed, purchased, and placed by the Augusta Chapter of the Military Order of the World Wars (MOWW) and the chapter's 17 community partners who made up the Augusta-CSRA Vietnam War Memorial Initiative (VWMI) Steering Committee.
The Confederate Memorial, was installed in Jacksonville, Florida's Hemming Park, in the United States. The monument was removed in June 2020.
