CHICAGO'S VIETNAM VETERANS SURVIVORS MEMORIAL

                COURTESY BILL LAVICKA AND FRIENDS





                     Written by June Grayson

                 Photographed by Richard Grayson




     Chicago area survivors of the Vietnam War have something to 

celebrate when they meet at 1.00 p.m. tomorrow for their Memorial  
 
Day Presentation of the Colors at 815 South Oakley Boulevard, the  
 
site of the Vietnam Veterans Survivors Memorial.  A favorable  
 
legal opinion from Neil Hartigan, Illinois attorney general,  
 
injects new enthusiasm into plans for summer activities at the  
 
Memorial, according to Bill Lavicka, the Memorial's founder. 

     More than 275,000 Americans contributed seven million  
 
dollars to establish the national Vietnam Veterans Memorial in  
 
Washington, D.C.  Dedicated on November 13, 1982, it sits in the  
 
midst of the serenely landscaped, fifty-two acre Constitution  
 
Gardens, part of the 146 acre National Mall.   
     The Illinois Vietnam Veterans Memorial, dedicated on May 7,  
 
1988, cost over one million dollars.  It sits on a beautiful two  
 
acre site in Oak Ridge Cemetery in Springfield, Illinois. 

     Chicago's Vietnam Veterans Survivors Memorial, dedicated  
 
November 7, 1988, cost $50,000 and sits on a privately-owned,  
 
twenty-five foot wide city lot near the westside Medical Center.   
 
Bill Lavicka built it himself - with a little help from his  
 
friends.  No committees, no fund raising, no politics. 

     Lavicka served with a 700 man Seabee unit in Vietnam in  
 
1967-1968.  He came back.  Seven did not.  Lavicka remembers  
 
every one. 

     "Chicago's Welcome Home Vietnam Veterans parade in 1986  
 
inspired me, but I wanted to do something myself," Lavicka  
 
recalls.  "I owned this empty lot and I said - why not?  I  
 
didn't need to ask anyone's permission.  I didn't even need a  
 
building permit." 

     Lavicka, a structural engineer, and his wife, Alys, own  
 
Historic Boulevard Services.  They rehabilitate older, income- 
 
producing properties in the Tri-Taylor Historic District on  
 
Chicago's Near West Side. 

     The Memorial's components from a gutted office building, an  
 
abandoned Catholic church, and an electric company.  Friends and  
 
business associates donated additional money, material, and  
 
labor.  

     Lavicka has established a non-profit foundation of which he  
 
is president to own the Memorial and lot and to maintain it in  
 
perpetuity.  Tom Lampa, a Chicago policeman, is vice-president  
 
and Bruce Brummel, a construction superintendent, is treasurer of  
 
the organization.  Both are also Vietnam veterans.

     Five buildings that Lavicka rehabilitated adjoin the Memorial  
 
site to the north.  Two empty lots owned by the State of Illinois  
 
adjoin the site to the south.

     An antique Chicago lamp post illumines each corner of the  
 
site.  Two Buddhist dragons flank an entrance stone and 
 
symbolically protect the hallowed ground.  Small marble stepping  
 
stones lead to the back of the lot where ten cast iron columns  
 
painted blood-red soar to the sky.  The columns encircle a  
 
concrete slab in which is embedded a black granite map of  
 
Vietnam.  "Vietnam Survivors Memorial, 1960-1975, America's  
 
Longest War." 

     The Memorial has already become a rallying point for  
 
Vietnam veterans in Chicago.  "Remember that this is a survivors'  
 
Memorial," Lavicka stresses.  "God bless those who didn't come  
 
back, but the survivors had the hardest time of all.  We never  
 
received any honor from the country that sent us over there so  
 
now we honor each other.  You did a good job and I did a good job  
 
and welcome home at last." 

     The columns are placed far enough apart for a wheelchair to 
 
enter the central circle.  Anonymous visitors leave notes and  
 
flowers.  "This is a happy place," Lavicka says.  "You can find  
 
peace and healing here."

 
     More than 500 people attended the Memorial dedication on 
 
November 7, 1987.  Chicago's mounted police carried the flags. 

Neighborhood stores and restaurants donated food and beverages.

     Last summer at the Memorial, the  Chicago Humanities Council  
 
sponsored a book-reading by Larry Heinemann, a Vietnam veteran  
 
and author of Paco's Story, winner of a national book award.    
 
Later, a special 2,000 Balloon Release Ceremony from the Memorial  
 
remembered the MIA's. 

     "We plan a summer benefit to raise money for homeless  
 
Vietnam Veterans," Lavicka says.  "We envision a dinner on the  
 
grounds - a festive occasion - and invite everyone interested to  
 
participate and donate to the fund.  All proceeds will be turned  
 
over to Al Lynch, also a Vietnam veteran, and head of the  
 
Illinois Veterans Advocacy Department under the office of the  
 
Attorney General, for distribution.

     However, a twenty five foot lot does not provide much room  
 
for festive celebrations.  That is why 400 Vietnam veterans  
 
sent a petition last year to Governor Thompson requesting that  
 
the State of Illinois deed its two lots to the Memorial  
 
Foundation.  The Medical Center Commission, which currently has  
 
authority over the use of the lots, had concluded that such a  
 
property transfer would be illegal.  The veterans then asked  
 
Attorney General Neil Hartigan to determine how the adjacent lots  
 
could be used for Memorial activities.  

     "We don't want to make this our life work," Lavicka  
 
says, "but we started a nice thing and we would like to see it  
 
continue.  We said to the State of Illinois - there are 200,000  
 
surviving Illinois Vietnam veterans and a lot of them have come  
 
here and felt better. Numerous studies from veterans  
 
organizations and medical centers say that memorials such as this  
 
provide catharsis and help veterans confront their haunting  
 
memories.  We think that the use of a 25 foot lot- or even a  
 
fifty foot lot - is still not commensurate to the pain that these  
 
veterans endured." 

     On Monday, May 15th, Lavicka received a letter from Hartigan  
 
which said in part ".....it is my opinion that the Medical Center  
 
Commission of the State of Illinois does have the authority to  
 
set the vacant lots aside as a park which could then be used in  
 
conjunction with the adjacent memorial...." 

    Lavicka hopes that additional ceremonial flag poles and  
 
flowering trees can be placed around a central grassy area on the  
 
adjoining lots. 

     "We invite all veterans to come and celebrate with us  
 
tomorrow.  Come alone or with family and friends, in uniform  
 
or out of uniform - but bring your flags, national, state, POW, 
 
Vietnam, all of them.  We will swap stories and continue  
 
thanking each other for the service we gave our country.  And  
 
we will also give three cheers for Neil Hartigan."



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