Terrace of Remembrance
Memorial Walk: Dedicated to all who served - honoring those who fell in The Vietnam War.
In 1988, under the sponsorship of Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter 218, construction began on the Memorial Walk didicated to Santa Barbara County residents who served during the Vietnam War.
It honors the soldiers, marines, sailors and airmen who died in America's longest conflict which took the lives of 58,202 of her servicemen and women. Each of the Santa Barbara casualties listed in order of date of death, is memorialized by an incense cedar planted on this hillside near his year marker. The extended space between the 1962 and 1965 year markers represent a time when no couonty residents died in the war.
Epilogue:
"The veterans of Santa Barbara County wish to honor their fellow Americans who have served and will serve this country and also all American who have supported members of our armed forces since the Battle of Lexington and Concord, April 19, 1775.
Santa Barbara County veterans in passing the Torch of Liberty, ask that succeeding generations who have worn their country's uniform add names to this memorial in the tragic event that it becomes necessary.
Dedicated 11 November, 1997
"To Vietnam and Back" (click here) written by Paul Sgroi
Paul Sgroi served seven years in the United States Army, and was stationed in Vietnam as a combat photographer with the First Cavalry Division Airmobile unit from October 1968 to October 1969.
In 1985, he was an auditor in the University of California, Santa Barbara class on the impact of the Vietnam War, in which capacity he wrote this essay as, he said, "an open letter to myself, to those who know me, and to the students' in the class.
Later the same year he accompanied the students on their annual pilgrimage to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. He spoke at the ceremony, paying tribute to the many persons he knew who did not return from the war.
In 1987, Mr. Sgroi died at his own hands in the Paradise area of the Santa Ynez River Valley.
The Terrace of Remembrance Photo Gallery
click here
Directions To 'The Terrace'
note: Coming from the freeway 101 , headed towards the water on Las Positas, the entrance is after the tennis courts on your left. Once you get half way up the entrance hill, you will be making a left up a 'driveway' where there is a boys and girls camp sign. There you will find yourself at the top of a hill and a parking lot.
Elings Park
(Las Positas Friendship Park)
Las Positas Rd. & Jerry Harwin Pkwy.
Santa Barbara, CA
805-569-5611
