Introducing the 2018
Arkansas State Capitol
Christmas Ornament
Ornament depicts the Arkansas Vietnam Veterans Memorial on the State Capitol grounds.
(LITTLE ROCK, ARK.) – Arkansas Secretary of State Mark Martin is proud to introduce the 2018 Arkansas State Capitol Christmas Ornament for the upcoming holiday season. This year's ornament depicts the Arkansas Vietnam Veterans Memorial which sits on the Arkansas State Capitol's front lawn at the corner of Woodlane and 7th Streets in Little Rock.
This ornament's design fits in with the upcoming Capitol Christmas Lighting Ceremony, which will honor veterans and members of the military. Many service members do not get to be home with their families during the holidays. Some never come home. This is a small way to honor their service and sacrifice.
These collector's item ornaments are available for purchase online or in the Arkansas Capitol Gift Shop, located on the first floor of the Capitol building.
In 1983, the Arkansas 74th General Assembly enacted Act 394 authorizing the construction of a memorial to Arkansas’s Vietnam Veterans on the Arkansas State Capitol grounds. Arkansas Secretary of State Paul Revere was provided authorization to appoint a design selection committee. He chose the concept for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial submitted by Steven K. Gartman, an Architecture student from the University of Arkansas.
The design features 175 light-gray granite uprights, arranged in two outer and one inner section. The names of Arkansas’s 669 known Vietnam casualties are engraved on the sixteen French Creek granite panels. The engravings are placed toward the inside of the plaza where a bronze statue of a Vietnam-era infantry soldier, mounted on a 5 sided granite plinth, stands. Local Little Rock artist, John Deering created the statue which was named “Going Home”.
The memorial was dedicated on March 7, 1987, in a ceremony which brought more than 5,000 people to view a parade that passed through downtown Little Rock on its way to the memorial site at the southeast corner of the State Capitol grounds.
A few notable parade marchers included retired Army General William Westmoreland, former commander of U.S. Troops in Vietnam along with Chad Colley of Barling, Arkansas, former National Commander of the Disabled American Veterans who was pushed through the parade lines by General Westmoreland. At the Arkansas Vietnam Veterans site, crowds heard speeches from General Westmoreland and Governor Bill Clinton before the memorial, draped in a camouflage cover, was unveiled. The unveiling was followed by a single bugler sounding “Taps” as the crowd was silent.
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