For more information on purchasing a brick for the Veterans Memorial Park, located at Plattsburgh Barracks, call Paul Dumas at 562-4042.
PLATTSBURGH — As soon as Robin Pageau stepped through the door of her home after work one day, her husband attacked her.
She was on the ground within seconds, feeling the pressure of a strangle that would leave handprints around her neck for the next eight weeks.
Her husband, Gary, served in Vietnam; now, he suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder.
Robin wants Gary recognized as a veteran.
"It plays hell with these veterans minds, their lives," she said. "It never goes away."
That's why Robin, 51, visits the Veterans Memorial Park at Plattsburgh Barracks with a cup of coffee every evening in honor of Gary and also her father.
"This is when I do my talking to him," Robin said of her father, Edward Alexander, who died in April. She said she and her father were close, and she still weeps when she thinks of him.
Robin has not missed an evening at the Memorial Park since the second of two memorial walls was started, just after her father's death.
Gary usually accompanies her, and she feels content amid the symbols of her father's and husband's service for the United States.
"It gives me a quiet, calm, happy peace," she said.
ALL VETS ELIGIBLE
Robin sometimes sees other people in the Memorial Park, which is sponsored by the Disabled American Veterans, and observes their whispers as they show respect to the names engraved in bricks on two separate walls.
Paul Dumas, a Korean War veteran who is the former DAV Chapter 179 commander, said he initially set up the park with one wall as a place for people to honor all veterans.
"If they went through boot camp, they're a veteran," Dumas said. "They're entitled to a brick on the wall." The second wall is now halfway complete.
Anyone can buy a brick for the wall in honor of a veteran of any United States war, past or present, whether the veteran is living or deceased or a New York state resident or non-resident.
The cost of a brick is $50, which covers the brick itself and the engraving of the veteran's name, title and years served, if the brick buyer chooses to include that information.
The revenue from the bricks pays for the upkeep of the Memorial Park: lighting system, garden, flagpoles, a monument and future ideas that Dumas said are in the works.
MONUMENT ADDED
"Each year, we make another change, another improvement," Dumas said. "This year, that's our new monument."
The monument that was added is a column that holds engravings of the Bronze Star, the Congressional Medal of Honor and the cross.
At the base of the monument is recorded a time line history of U.S. military action, members served and casualties from the Revolutionary War to the present.
A stone donated by Graymont Materials reveals a sculpted eagle perched and ready for takeoff above the stone. Underneath, the stone reads: "Dedicated to all veterans who have served this great nation in her time of need from the battles of the revolution thru the present."
"If you look at it today or somebody looks at it 100 years from now, it's still the present," Dumas said. "That's why it's worded that way."
The DAV plans to add two mini walls to the park once the second big wall is complete.
Robin hopes the bricks dedicated to her husband and her father will be up by the Fourth of July. She doesn't think enough people are aware the Memorial Park exists, let alone that they can buy a brick in honor of a veteran.
She expects that as more additions spring up around the park, more people will visit.
"It's a nice place. It's a shame to let it go unnoticed."
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