Misspelling on County Veterans Memorial to Be Fixed
The misspelled 'Marines Corps' will be fixed on the Travis County Veterans Memorial. Photo by Filipa Rodrigues, KUT News.The Travis County Veterans Memorial will need to be re-blasted after a misspelling was found 11 times on the monument.
The names of 21 men and women are inscribed on the black granite rock that is the Travis County Veterans Memorial. Some of them served in the Army, some were National Guard.
11 served in the Marine Corps. On the monument, it was misspelled “Marines Corps.”
Yolanda Valdez is the mother of Lance Cpl. Nicholas S. Perez. In 2004, he became the fourth local serviceman to die in the wars. He was 19. Valdez says on the day of the dedication, her daughter — who is also a Marine — noticed the misspelling right away. Valdez hopes it can be fixed.
“Out of respect to the fallen soldiers — those that made the ultimate sacrifice,” Valdez said. “And if not, we understand. Mistakes are made.”
It’s hard to pinpoint how this mistake happened. A committee approved by the Travis County Commissioners Court spent countless hours over a period of almost three years working out every detail that had to do with the memorial, before the approved version landed in Randy Davis’ office. Davis built the monument. At his workshop, he says that out of respect to the families, he paid attention to every detail provided by the commission.
“There were a lot of people looking at it,” Davis said. “But, I never was in the service. My dad was in the Marine Corps. My oldest brother was in the Marine Corps. But, I was never in the service, so the spelling of those doesn’t pop out to me.”
In December, it will be two years since the memorial was dedicated. And Olie Pope with the Travis County Veterans Service Office hopes to have the monument fixed before the end of 2012. Pope chairs the committee that erected the monument. He says his responsibility did not end on the day the memorial was dedicated.
“Without this memorial, who would know that they were residents of Travis County — other than their parents, their families and friends?” Pope said. “With their names inscribed on this memorial, it’s eternal, you know? And hopefully, they will always remember that the County did not forget them.”
The monument will be hauled to Marble Falls sometime in the next few months to be redone. At that time, the names of Petty Officer Brian K. Lundy, Sgt. James M. Darrough and Sgt. Juan P. Navarro will be added to the stone’s face. They died after the memorial was dedicated.
Fixing the mistake and adding the names will cost the memorial commission about $5,000. Pope says the money will not come from the county, but from donations to the Travis County Veterans Service Office.
