MADISON COUNTY VETERAN’S MEMORIAL

Located near the historic Whitehall property outside Richmond, Kentucky, the Madison County Veteran’s Memorial Park (MCVM) was commissioned by an amazing group of Vietnam War veterans and the Judge Executive of Madison County.

The park will ultimately be home to memorials for each major conflict from World War One to the War on Terror and include an outdoor amphitheater to be used for community events and celebrations.

The monuments in the park are located surrounding an open greenspace and gathering pavilion. Monuments are placed at varying distances apart relative to how far apart in history their respective wars were fought. The landscape surrounding them has been designed to subtly emulate the type of landscape seen in the primary battle zones.

The greenspace in the center of the path has been divided into four quadrants – Army, Navy, Marines, and Air Force. In the center of these zones are flags to those branches of service, and decommissioned pieces of equipment and artillery donated by the local Army Depot.

The Soldier Stone: Standing at six feet tall, at roughly the proportions of a typical soldier, these polished marble stones are designed to sit upright in the middle of platform. Each platform is designed to reflect the conditions of its war’s environment. At the Vietnam memorial, for example, the platform is densely planted with vegetation, while in the War on Terror the platform is constructed of sandstone.

Conspicuously carved into the center of the stone, at roughly the location of the human heart, is a hole. The hole is sized differently at each memorial location. It’s size, relative to the whole, references the ratio of lives lost to the total who served.