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Vietnam memorial benefit Jan. 8

By: TIM MAYER - Staff Writer

CARLSBAD ---- Organizers say tickets are still available for a Saturday event to raise money for a monument that will honor North County residents who died in Vietnam.

"We still do have tickets available, and we really want to encourage people to come," said Lisa Limber, executive director of the Carlsbad Village Business Association.

The association, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Project, the Army and Navy Academy, and the San Dieguito Veterans have joined forces to raise money for the memorial they hope to erect in Carlsbad.

The 7:30 p.m. Saturday event at the Carlsbad Cultural Arts Center, 3557 Monroe St., will feature music from the Vietnam era, guest speakers, and a reading of the names to be inscribed on the memorial.

Among those expected to attend are Stephanie Cavanaugh of Vista and members of her family. Her Marine Corps father, Lt. Col. Arthur C. Stephens Jr. died in Vietnam during his second tour of duty there in 1971.

"My father was a just a very loving person and dad and husband," said Cavanaugh.

Cavanaugh said the memorial will be a place where she, her eight brothers and sisters, and her father's many grand and great grandchildren can go to remember and learn about her father.

Having the local memorial "will be nice for the grandchildren and great grandchildren to easily visit and honor their grandfather, and also for my brothers and sisters and myself," she said.

But the memorial "will really be for everybody, not just me or my family," she said.

Thanks in part to a $6,500 grant from the city, organizers have raised a little more than $16,000 toward the project. The granite memorial ---- inscribed with the names of all North County residents who died in the war ---- will be erected on land being set aside by the Army and Navy Academy adjacent to Carlsbad Boulevard. Plans for the project, totaling about $50,000, include landscaped grounds and benches.

Limber said "this memorial will, in some small way, help bring closure and will also remember the lives of the young men who sacrificed for our nation so many years ago."

The project began about 18 months ago as a class assignment by Carlsbad High School history teacher Jack Frazier, himself a veteran who lost three cousins in Vietnam.

"It's way past time to recognize the sacrifice of these men," Frazier said. "With Vietnam turning out to be a central issue in this last (presidential) election, it's obvious Vietnam is still an open wound.

"This will be a place to sit and think and remember and come to the realization that there are people who appreciate the sacrifice that was made," he said.

The event will include an evening of entertainment featuring Vietnam-era music performed by two local bands, "The Langen Brothers" and "Generation Gap," patriotic music, a flag presentation by the Army and Navy color guard, and the reading of the names of all those identified from throughout North County ---- 93 thus far ---- who died in Vietnam.

Tickets cost $10 and are available by calling the business association at (760) 434-2553 or Frazier at (619) 885-8846.

Contact staff writer Tim Mayer at (760) 901-4043 or tmayer@nctimes.com