The Atlanta Vietnam Veterans Business Association (AVVBA) is like no other in the United States. In 1987 the AVVBA adopted a specific goal “to bring recognition to those who served and especially those who did not return from Vietnam”. Each year since, on Friday before Memorial Day, somewhere in the greater Atlanta area, the AVVBA has recognized one of Atlanta’s 418 fallen heroes of the Vietnam War with an individual memorial. The Memorial Committee screens potential candidates who represented the best of Atlanta’s youth based on his contributions to the community before his service and for the sacrifice which led to his death. No other criteria are applied. Then near that warrior’s home and in close coordination with family members, school, church or other organizations in which he was active, the committee coordinates a memorial plaque and formal dedication ceremony complete with dignitary speeches, a color guard, service band, printed programs and aircraft flyovers. Since its inception, the AVVBA has erected twenty-nine memorials throughout Atlanta. Association members finance these memorials with their own contributions and coordinate every detail of each ceremony as well as the memorial’s perpetual maintenance. Generous coverage of these ceremonies by local television news broadcasts focuses attention not only on the warrior being recognized, but also on the significance of Memorial Day. If a single result of Warriors Remembered is the creation of similar associations in other U.S. cities or by younger warriors of more recent wars this book will have been a great success. Find this and 99 other unique stories in the photo documentary #WarriorsRemembered at www.warriorsremembered.com
