AUBURN — It’s taken at least two years, but two Twin Cities veterans killed in the Vietnam War will get their names added to the plaques at the entrances to the Vietnam Veterans Bridge.
“We all say the same thing, all of us veterans,” said Paul Bernard, public relations officer for the American Legion Androscoggin County District 3 and the former commander of the New Auburn American Legion Post. “We don’t leave anybody behind, and we don’t forget anybody.”
Bernard said local veterans are planning to dedicate the new plaques with a Sunday ceremony early in August. They’ll replace monuments at either entrance to the bridge, Main Street in Lewiston and Center Street in Auburn.
The new plaques will have 29 names — two more than the current plaques — 12 names from Auburn and 17 from Lewiston. Each name represents a native son of the Twin Cities who served his country and died during the Vietnam War.
“The plaques are being made; they should be coming back any day now,” Bernard said.
Additions are U.S. Marine Lance Cpl. Gerard L. Bosse of Auburn and U.S. Army Pfc. Roger J. Dumond of Lewiston.
The new markers are also personalized for each city. In Lewiston, the Lewiston vets will get top billing. The names are reversed in Auburn, with Auburn’s vets on top.
Bernard said he learned gradually, beginning in 2012, that the two men had been left off the plaque. He noticed that signs denoting the bridge as the Vietnam Veterans Bridge had been left off, and he contacted the Maine Department of Transportation to get that changed.
“People call it the third bridge, or the Memorial Bridge, or the Veterans Bridge — but not the Vietnam Veterans Memorial,” he said.”Very few do that, and it bothered me.”
The Sun Journal ran a story when the new signs were erected, and Bernard said he was contacted soon afterward by Dumond’s brother-in-law.
“He asked if his wife’s brother was on that list, and I told him those names were only of the boys killed in Vietnam,” Bernard said. “He said he was, and I said, ‘Are you serious?'”
The Sun Journal ran another story, noting that the memorial missed a name, and he was contacted by Bosse’s brother, who told the same story.
“So we put together another story and asked if there was anybody else,” Bernard said. “Does anyone know anyone else who was raised in Lewiston-Auburn and died in Vietnam? We haven’t heard of anybody else.”
Bernard said he worked with Twin Cities legislators to get a new memorial authorized.
“It started with the signs, and now those two boys will be remembered, and they’ll be with the rest of the guys from Lewiston-Auburn,” Bernard said.
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- An artist’s rendering of the new plaque memorializing Lewiston and Auburn natives killed during the Vietnam War. The new plaque adds two names, U.S. Marine Lance Cpl. Gerard L. Bosse of Auburn and U.S. Army Pfc. Roger J. Dumond of Lewiston, who had previously been left off. Pictured is the Auburn plaque. The Lewiston plaque will be the same, but the Lewiston names will appear on top. The new memorials will be dedicated in early August.
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