The East Tennessee Veterans Memorial honors more than 6,000 veterans from across 35 East Tennessee counties who died in military service from World War I to present day conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. The memorial was established to “remember, honor, educate and inspire” East Tennessee’s military heroes.
It grew from an idea that began after William “Bill” Felton III, a retired U.S. Army colonel, returned home from Normandy, France, in 1999. The names of the 14 Medal of Honor winners from East Tennessee are inscribed on the revere side of memorial’s 32 granite pillars that stand 54 inches high. The names are accessible for visitors to touch, and are sorted by conflict, and then by county.
The memorial includes a public plaza, a 50-foot flagpole and a 27-foot-high bell tower. It is inscribed with the four essential freedoms from President Franklin D. Roosevelt January 6, 1941 speech to Congress: freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want and freedom from fear.
At the request of Mayor Ragsdale, Commission appropriated $1.25 million, Congress approved $475,000, the City of Knoxville provided the land and a remaining balance of $3 million through a private fund drive to erect the East Tennessee Veteran's Memorial on a grassy plot at the northern end of Knoxville's Worlds Fair Park.
The 35 counties included in the East Tennessee Veterans Memorial project are Anderson, Bledsoe, Blount, Bradley, Campbell, Claiborne, Carter, Cocke, Cumberland, Fentress, Grainger, Greene, Hancock, Hamilton, Hamblen, Hawkins, Jefferson, Johnson, Knox, Loudon, Marion, McMinn, Meigs, Monroe, Morgan, Polk, Rhea, Roane, Scott, Sequatchie, Sevier, Sullivan, Unicoi, Union and Washington.
The Memorial itself was designed by architect Lee Ingram of the Knoxville firm Brewer Ingram Fuller. Access Museum Services of Nashville has been retained by ETVMA as consultants for development of the Veterans History Center.
(the following facts are from the East Tennessee Veterans Memorial Association, www.etvma.org)
Memorial Facts:
- There are roughly 138 tons of granite in the Memorial – over a quarter of a million pounds.
- Most of the granite – all the white stone in the monuments and all the gray paving – comes from about 40 miles west of Yosemite National Park in California.
- The red granite paving comes from about 75 miles north of San Antonio, Texas.
- The black granite border is from a Quebec quarry about 125 miles north of Quebec City and about 135 miles from Maine.
The Memorial Bell:
- Weighs 693 pounds; Musical Note: B; Diameter 31 ½”; Rung by Inside electric striker (the clapper is mounted inside the bell); Cast of 80% copper and 20% tin; Cast by Petit and Fritsen Royal Bellfoundry, The Netherlands; Sold by The Verdin Company, Cincinnati, OH
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