WARREN — Jim Valesky spent his Thursday morning placing 60 signs showing images of men from Trumbull County killed in the Vietnam War in front of the Kinsman House on Mahoning Avenue, as he has ahead of every Veterans Day and Memorial Day since 2018.

Several hundred miles away in Washington, D.C., volunteers who started around 3:30 p.m. Monday were part way through reading some 58,000 names of men and women killed in Vietnam — including the 60 names on Valesky’s signs.

The ceremony in Washington, which was to conclude at midnight, marked the 40th anniversary of the Vietnam Memorial, dedicated in November 1982.

The creation of the memorial wall was spearheaded by Maryland-born Vietnam veteran Jan Scruggs, according to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund. A competition for the memorial’s design was won by then-21-year-old Maya Ying Lin of Athens, Ohio, who was a senior at Yale University. The names of the fallen are inscribed in chronological order on reflective, black granite.

Each name on the wall is written in the same size and without indicating rank, Valesky said, meaning a private can be next to a general.

Valesky, a Marine Corps veteran and the president of the Warren Heritage Center, first had signs made when the Warren Heritage Center, with the help of Trumbull County Veterans Services and about 150 volunteers, brought the traveling Vietnam Memorial wall to Warren in 2018. Each sign lists the information for one man from Trumbull County who died in Vietnam, including where his name is inscribed on the memorial wall.

“I’m very fortunate, but these guys weren’t,” Valesky said. “The least I can do is what I do here.”

Valesky said he actually knows of 61 men from Trumbull County who died in Vietnam. The additional man, Army Capt. Richard M. Rees, who was a Warren G. Harding High School graduate, listed his address as a relative’s house in Portage County, so official databases don’t include him in the Trumbull County list.

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund shows that nearly 100 men from Mahoning County and 36 men from Columbiana County died in Vietnam.

Among the more than 58,000 names on the wall are also eight women, all nurses. Most died in helicopter or plane crashes, but one woman, 1st Lt. Sharon Ann Lane of Canton, was killed in a rocket attack.

Valesky said when the traveling memorial wall was in Warren, it brought the community together. Now, people stop to look at the signs running along the sidewalk and arching up toward the historic Kinsman House. He said many of the late soldiers pictured still have family and friends living in the area.

“As long as people remember them, they’re still here,” Valesky said.

The signs will stay up until this evening and will be put back up in May for Memorial Day.

Trumbull County men killed in Vietnam

Marvin Douglas Avery, Warren, Navy

Keith Ray Bacorn, Warren, Navy

Donald Eugene Bartek, Vienna, Army

Charles Edward Battles, Warren, Army

Michael Lee Bowman, Warren, Navy

James Robert Brobst, Newton Falls, Army

Gary Lee Brown, Warren, Army

Thomas David Catlin, Niles, Army

James W. Charlesworth Jr., Girard, Army

Richard Anthony Choppa, Hubbard, Army

McArthur Coleman, Masury, Marine Corps

James Emory Cross, Warren, Air Force

Kenneth Lee Crysel, Warren, Marine Corps

George W. Darnell Jr., Warren, Army

Gary Ray Davis, Warren, Marine Corps

Thomas Evan Douglas, Warren, Marine Corps

Alfred Dugger, Warren, Army

John David Flanigan, Warren, Marine Corps

Gary Lee Fleck, Niles, Army

William Allen Haines Jr., Warren, Army

Andre Haroulakis, Warren, Army

Robert Eudgene Hewitt, Warren, Army

Dallas Edwin Hickman, Warren, Army

George Allen Hubbard, Hubbard, Army

Andrew Michael Hudak, Warren, Marine Corps

David Lee Jackson Jr., Warren, Army

Michael Donald Jarrett, Warren, Navy

Dennis Neil Johnston, McDonald, Navy

Bruce R. Jones, Niles, Air Force

Robert Arthur Jones, Girard, Army

Percy Julian, Warren, Army

James Joseph Kester, Warren, Army

Richard Charles Knapp, Warren, Army

Donald Edward Layfield, Leavittsburg, Army

Richard Keith Lemmon, Liberty, Army

Robert Donald Logue, Warren, Marine Corps

Richard Myron Lombardo, Warren, Marine Corps

John Thomas Montgomery, Newton Falls, Army

John Lee Moreland, Liberty, Marine Corps

Albert C. Myers, Warren, Army

Herbert James Nece, Mesopotamia, Army

David Thomas Orwig III, Niles, Army

Gustav Ostrakovic, Cortland, Marine Corps

William E. Parker III, Warren, Marine Corps

Frank Joseph Prokop, Warren, Marine Corps

Walter Garland Rice Jr., Bristol, Army

John Harold Roach, Warren, Marine Corps

Bernard James Rodzen, Warren, Marine Corps

Ronald Carl Ross, Girard, Army

David Alexander Semeraro, Niles, Army

Paul Anthony Sgambati, Girard, Army

Joseph A. Siciliano Jr., Girard, Marine Corps

Andrew Richard Sinchak Jr., Cortland, Army

William Michael Skovran, Warren, Army

David Charles Teutsch, Newton Falls, Marine Corps

Robert Virgil Thomas, Warren, Army

Albert Allen Vencel, Warren, Army

John Mathew Vitello Jr., Warren, Army

Martin Walker Jr., Masury, Army

Terrance Lee Weant, Cortland, Army

* Army Capt. Richard M. Rees was a Warren G. Harding High School graduate, but listed his address as a relative’s house in Portage County, so official databases don’t include him in the Trumbull County list.

SOURCE: Vietnam Veterans memorial fund foundation