One Man’s Dream Becomes War Memorial in Anaheim

On a trip across Europe a few years ago, Don Baldwin noticed the war memorials that cities had built in tribute to the soldiers who had served their countries. It dawned on the World War II veteran that his hometown, Anaheim, had no such monument.

Once he got home, Baldwin consulted with the American Legion post in Anaheim, then sat down to ask the mayor and City Council members to change that.

“An untold number of Anaheim citizens have served in the military, both at home and abroad,” Baldwin wrote, adding that he believes they were proud to have “come forward when our country was somehow, somewhere challenged.” Yet Anaheim had no physical reminder of their commitment and dedication, he told the city’s leaders.

Today, less than three years after Baldwin’s appeal, Anaheim will dedicate a Veterans’ Monument and plaza next to the Anaheim Museum downtown.

The monument will be one of several in Orange County, but Ron Melendez, manager of the Orange County Veteran’s Office, said, “Every memorial built is an important reminder of the people committed to guaranteeing the freedoms that we have.”

For an enterprise that eventually cost the city about $450,000, the project went fairly smoothly. Baldwin’s initial letter went unanswered. But with a little persistence, he won the support of Anaheim’s City Council and staff. By April 1998, the city had found funding and land from the downtown redevelopment effort and set up a committee to oversee the project.

“Anaheim is 145 years old,” said Mayor Tom Daly, who added that he encouraged the idea. “Young people who grew up in Anaheim went off to fight in World War I, World War II, Korea and Vietnam.”

The monument, which will be unveiled at 10 a.m. today, honors veterans who served in 20th century wars, but it has few traditional war images. The central piece, a bronze bas-relief mounted on a 10-foot-tall column, depicts uniformed men and women engaged in primarily peaceful tasks. A man sits at a mess hall table eating. Another stands with a rifle slung over his shoulder. A nurse tends to a wounded man. A woman stands saluting.

Artist Richard Turner, who teaches Asian art history at Chapman University, said he wanted to design a monument that would encourage contemplation. Thus the entire plaza is rife with symbolism. A concrete maze circles the bas-relief, representing war’s disruption to life’s normal cycle. To the side of the plaza, grass lies clumped in formation. Two fountains have water rushing over the wars’ dates. Anaheim’s historic flagpole, first erected in 1918, will fly both the U.S. and missing-in-action flags at the plaza’s entrance. At the other end is an olive tree, a universal symbol of peace.

The monument is not exactly what Baldwin had in mind when he first wrote his letter to the city. The former Army infantryman said the bas-relief figures depict “the more domesticated, rather than brutal side of the war.”

Baldwin said he saw little combat, serving in the 88th Division 350th Infantry Regiment from 1945 to 1948. During the war, he drove a truck hauling military equipment in Italy. After the war, he continued driving, transporting goods to villages where people lacked necessities.

Even so, for the monument, Baldwin would have liked more representations of military gear, such as an old warplane, a modern jet and a ballistic missile.

He was outvoted by a committee made up mostly of non-veterans.

Still, he said he’s excited to have a veterans monument in his city.

“It will give the citizens of Anaheim something to . . . remind them of how cruel war can be, its waste of human lives, and how fortunate we are to be where we are.”