DAYTON, Ohio — Two days after Veterans Day, Dayton will unveil a memorial years in the making: a granite tribute to the Miami Valley’s 41 Medal of Honor recipients, set in a renamed Honor Park at the gateway to the historic Wright Dunbar District, according to Wright Dunbar, Inc., the volunteer group leading the project.
The unveiling is planned for Friday, Nov. 13, at 2 p.m. at the park at the intersection of the Third Street Bridge and Edwin C. Moses Boulevard, according to project organizers. A 12-foot granite obelisk weighing 20,000 pounds, bearing the names of the 41 recipients, was lifted into place on Oct. 19 and topped with a 7,000-pound granite globe etched by hand, according to the Northridge Alumni Veterans Memorial page, which counts one of its own — Joseph Guy LaPointe Jr., Northridge High School Class of 1966 — among the honorees.
“This will be a magnificent tribute to the approximately 41 area recipients of the Medal of Honor, the highest U.S. military award given for valor in combat,” Karla Garrett Harshaw, a Wright Dunbar, Inc. board member coordinating the undertaking, said in the project’s announcement. “We also will honor the more than 110,000 veterans who live in our region. They put their lives at risk to keep us safe and to preserve our democracy.”
The memorial honors recipients and veterans from eight counties — Montgomery, Greene, Clark, Butler, Warren, Miami, Darke and Preble — and visitors will be able to scan a QR code at the monument to read each recipient’s biography online, according to Wright Dunbar, Inc. Among the most recent area recipients are Airman First Class William H. Pitsenbarger of Piqua, Army Specialist Four Joseph Guy LaPointe Jr. and Corporal Anthony Michael Stein.
Medal of Honor recipient Sergeant First Class Sammy Lee Davis, a native Daytonian who survived combat in Vietnam, will attend the unveiling ceremony, according to the project announcement.
The park, formerly Friendship Park, already holds four World War I memorials and Gold Star Mothers memorials that are being refurbished as part of the project, according to the Dayton Foundation, the project’s fiduciary. The volunteer effort has raised more than $1.5 million toward its goal, including $500,000 from the Dayton City Commission and a $350,000 Ohio Capital Fund award, according to project organizers, with fundraising continuing for completion and long-term maintenance.
The site sits diagonally across from the Wright Flyer III sculpture — fitting, organizers note, because the 1909 Wright Military Flyer was the world’s first military airplane, and the Dayton region carries the second-highest concentration of veterans in Ohio.
Friday’s 2 p.m. unveiling is open to the community. “Most of us have a relative or friend who served in the military,” Garrett Harshaw said in the announcement. “We hope the community will visit the park when it is completed.”
Photo: Antony-22, CC BY-SA