The State - News from Sept. 11, 1988

Vietnam veterans and supporters will march 100 miles to raise money for a war memorial in Porterville, which lost more men per capita in Vietnam than any other city in California. The march is scheduled to begin at 6 a.m. Saturday at the Vietnam Veterans’ Memorial in Fresno’s Woodward Park and conclude four days later at Porterville’s West View Park, site of the proposed memorial. The memorial will be a large Huey helicopter on a pedestal with the names of the 28 Porterville-area men who died in the war. Steve Brown, an organizer of the march sponsored by American Legion Post 20, said $16,500 of the estimated $22,000 needed has been raised. Brown said 58,132 men died in the war, but the rate of Porterville-area servicemen killed was six times the national average. The average age of Porterville soldiers killed was about 21 years, he said.