Got Lemons - Make Lemonade

The growing use of cell phones requires more repeater towers to provide clear and drop free calls. Locating places to build these repeater towers usually generates the same NIMBY response (Not In My Back Yard).

A new repeater placed last year in St. Peters was built in a great way to provide a more pleasing appearance. They made lemonade from lemons. The city worked with the cell phone company and designed a Memorial honoring Korean and Vietnam Veteran's around the repeater site. The tower antenna was placed inside a very tall flag pole.

Three of the walls of the enclosure for the electronics equipment were made with over 1,000 bricks listing Missouri residents who died in Vietnam. Originally these bricks and a monument were part of a back yard memorial of a St. Peters resident and Vietnam Veteran Glen Rappold. Mr. Rappold donated this monument and all of the engraved bricks to the City of St. Peters.

The Vietnam Memorial Monument donated by Mr. Rappold.

A 4-foot wide, 3 1/2-foot tall monument honors veterans of the Korean conflict. The monument includes inscribed insignias from the U.S. Army, U.S. Marine Corps, U.S. Navy, U.S. Air Force, and the U.S. Coast Guard.The monument was originally placed on a piece of land outside the St. Peters Police Department where it remained from June 2004-November 2008. The monument was funded by the Korean War Veteran's Association of St. Charles County Chapter 6.

This Korean and Vietnam Veteran's memorial was dedicated on November 8, 2008. We were present for this dedication service. It was very cold and windy day.

This memorial, Veterans Memorial South, is the second of two beautiful settings in St. Peters that provides special recognition for all servicemen and servicewomen. The first is the Veterans Memorial at St. Peters City Centre.

The Veterans Memorial at St. Peters City Centre includes several monuments including:

Veterans Memorial––a granite monument dedicating the site to our veterans.

Field of Honor––a 16-foot diameter pool featuring a granite disk with six rifles projecting from it. On the end of the rifle stocks are helmets to represent a field of honor. This pool is in the center and connected to two 12-foot pools, with fountains rising out of each.



At each end of the field of honor are 3 flagpoles with flags and small engraved monuments that recognizes each branch of the military service: U.S. Marine Corps, U.S. Army, U.S. Navy, U.S Coast Guard, U.S. Merchant Marine, U.S. Air Force.

Two same statues represent all servicemen and servicewomen.

Several ceremonies are held each year at the St. Peters Veterans Memorial with participation from local veterans’ organizations including Armed Forces Day, Memorial Day, Veterans Day and (weather permitting) a Pearl Harbor remembrance.

St. Peters hosted a ceremony on November 7, 2009, featuring the dedication of a new artillery piece at the Veterans Memorial at City Centre Park. Former Veterans Memorial Commission Chairman Bill Rupp was honored for his service as a U.S. Marine Corps Veteran in World War II, and his work as chairman of the St. Peters Veterans Commission.



I am posting this entry to recognize Veterans Day, November 11, 2009. If you notice all the flags at both of these memorials except the tall tower are at half staff, honoring the service men and women killed at Fort Hood last week