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'Where is it?' | Vietnam Veterans frustrated with city's lack of progress to mount monument, plans still unclear

Since 2009, the mayors of Warner Robins have promised to dedicate a monument to Vietnam Veterans. Not much has happened since.

HOUSTON COUNTY, Ga. — "Where is it?" Tom McLendon asked.

Over a decade ago, in 2009, the City of Warner Robins promised a memorial honoring Vietnam Veterans. 

Today, it's still not up.

"That's 15 years and still no memorial," Richard McKee said. 

Vietnam Veterans McLendon and McKee are "fed up" with the lack of progress the city's made since.

McLendon recalls working on the ejection seats and volunteering for air crew duty.

McKee was a C-130 pilot during the war; those were used to drop bombs, he said.

After retiring, they both worked together to rename the road next to Buc-ee's as Vietnam Veterans Memorial Parkway.

The veterans are disappointed with how long it's taken for the city to mount a memorial honoring veterans they served with.

"Perhaps, you should've named the parkway 'No Action Road,'" McKee said.

McKee is the secretary of the Vietnam Veterans' Issues Board, which was formed in 2022. 

"It's been 50 years since the end of that war that 1,584 from the state of Georgia gave their lives and can't even get a small memorial," McKee said. "The whole thing is shameful, it's disgraceful, and it's a disservice to those people."

The last update 13WMAZ reported was that the city was negotiating land to house the memorial.

Two years later, that's still happening, according to Mayor LaRhonda Patrick.

Yet, the plans going forward are still unclear.

"They majority of them know I'm working on something, but I will not give them the information because, I've said so many times before, 'We're so close, I hope to have it by this calendar year, couple of months, and we should have something to share,' and all of those led to disappointment," Patrick acknowledged. "This time, I'm not going to give the details."

They've kept in touch with their fellow service members over the years, and have tried to spearhead the memorial project for over a decade in honor of service members. 

However, not all of them got the chance to see the project come to fruition. 

"So many of my best friends-- combat veterans-- every time I'd see 'em, or saw 'em-- 90% of them have already died-- they'd ask me, 'When's the memorial gonna be put up so we can come down,'" McLendon said. 

Patrick said they've had the money set aside for years, but today's hold up is finding the right piece of land for the monument.

McLendon says the owner of Buc-ee's is an advocate for veterans. 

From keeping in touch with them, he says the owner intentionally built Buc-ee's where it is today so it would be near the Vietnam Veterans Memorial when it is built.

He was hoping it would attract people from out of town to Central Georgia and "put us on the map."

"I wanna say more, I wanna do as I have the other two times, but I stand firm that I do not want to disappoint them a third time," Patrick said.

The mayor invites any members of Congress, state legislators and "anyone with any power" to help move the project along.

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