The Missouri Students Association’s Student Affairs Committee plans to install plaques honoring MU students and staff who died in the Korean and Vietnam wars.
The idea for the new plaques came to Student Affairs Committee Vice Chairwoman Claire Kates after discovering no such memorial currently existed.
“(A friend) and I were discussing the fact that there is no commemoration for those who were killed in Korea or Vietnam,” Kates said. “I agreed that that was a bit odd, and I told him I’d look into it. I snooped around for a bit, and then brought my idea to my committee on MSA – Student Affairs.”
The new plaques will be similar to the one already in existence in Memorial Union honoring the 338 MU men who lost their lives in World War II. Although there is no set location for the new plaques, Kates said they will be displayed somewhere in Memorial Union.
The Student Affairs Committee is now searching various archives to compile a comprehensive list of the names of all the fallen men and women.
“The finding of names is a time-consuming business,” Kates said. “Scanning the deaths listed at the end of (old MU alumni magazines) within the years of both conflicts produced quite a few names. We’ve been in contact with our state and local representatives to inform them as well.”
Kates said the main challenge is to avoid excluding anyone that died in service.
“Of course we don’t want to leave out names, and we are trying to be as thorough as possible,” Kates said. “That being said, I’m sure there will be names that elude us, but we are really encouraging the community to spread the word to let us know of any family members or friends that we should honor.”
If a name is omitted, Kates said members of the Student Affairs Committee would work with those who bring it to their attention and make the appropriate additions.
The Student Affairs Committee plans to eventually hold a ceremony to unveil the completed plaques.
“The goal is definitely to have an unveiling ceremony of sorts,” Kates said. “We all feel that it would be the right thing to do to honor both those who were killed as well as the families of those men and women.”
Although Kates said she hopes to have the ceremony during Veterans Week in November, no official date has been set.
“I hesitate to rush the project to meet the projected date because we don’t want this to be something that is just thrown together,” Kates said “We want this to be something special, and if that means taking extra time, we’ll do that.”
