Tenino Celebrates Installation Of Veterans Memorial In City Park

The centenary marking of Armistice Day also signified the culmination of years spent by Tenino city officials and residents alike to build and install a proper monument to local veterans of foreign wars who did not return home.

People from Tenino, south Thurston County and beyond congregated Sunday morning in the city park for a dedication ceremony that included personnel from Joint Base Lewis-McChord and U.S. Rep. Denny Heck, D-WA 10th District.

“I don’t want our veterans ever to again be defined as lost, or distant, or adrift,” Heck said during his speech Sunday. “… With that in mind, today is the day we celebrate the importance of veterans. But the other 364 days of the year are for making sure we aren’t giving up on their challenges ahead.”

Some civilians embodied Heck’s words Monday morning, even if they didn’t hear them the day before at the ceremony that Frank Hicks, Commander of the Veterans of Foreign Wars post in Tenino, deemed a community success.

Bill and Elizabet Frare of Olympia stopped on their southbound drive to examine the three stones sitting on a platform set back from the sidewalk.

Bill Frare’s family tree has ties to Tenino going back generations, and he wanted to see if he’d recognize any of the names carved under the gold star marking those killed in combat from World War I through to the present day.

“There weren’t any, but my parents and grandparents who grew up in Tenino, I’d imagine they’d know these people, or at least the names,” he said. “I think people will come to see this for as long as it’s here.”

Kristy Regan and her family stopped by — area schools and many businesses were closed Monday in observance of the holiday — to make sure they paid their respects after missing out on the dedication ceremony.

She credited the assemblies to honor local veterans put on earlier this month by Tenino schools for educating her children on the importance and gravity of Veterans Day.

“You don’t get that sort of experience in bigger cities,” Regan said. “Our family, like many community members has people that fought in wars. We take it hugely seriously here, and I think the people who walk on the trails in the park or visit for Oregon Trail Days in the summer will recognize that.”

There’s still work to be done to complete the memorial display. Sandstone carvings depicting the timeline of Tenino industry moving between times of war and peace will be inlaid within the retaining wall.

Hicks is hopeful some of the momentum and awareness generated by the installation in the city park will transfer over to efforts by some veterans to recreate the honor roll displaying the names of all local men and women who have served during wartime.

The original was taken down for repair during the 1960s but was never put back up.

“If we can do it the way we’d like, we’d like to do from World War I into the present,” Hicks said. “If they served and they’re from Tenino, their name would be on there. We’ll have to wait and see. I hope so, I really hope we can get it done.”