Scranton and Lackawanna County will co-sponsor in the fall a traveling wall honoring the veterans of the Vietnam War and a display honoring the sacrifice of service members from World War I through Operation Enduring Freedom.<\/p>\n
The nonprofit America\u2019s Freedom Tribute will have the exhibits on display at Nay Aug Park on Oct. 2-4, the city announced Monday.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are excited to partner with Scranton and Lackawanna County to offer this experience and create a memorable event,\u201d AFT event coordinator Kylah Doherty said in the announcement issued by the city.<\/p>\n
A similar touring replica of the permanent Vietnam Veterans Memorial wall in Washington, D.C., visited the city in 2007 and 2011.<\/p>\n
The idea of getting a replica wall back on display in the city was raised by James \u201cKuch\u201d Kuchwara, an Army veteran of the Vietnam War and commander of VFW Post 25 in North Scranton before he died in March 2023 at age 73. Kuchwara and his brother, Marine veteran Sam Kuchwara, were visiting Nay Aug Park one day a few years ago when Jim mentioned to Sam the idea of bringing a touring wall back to the city.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the last things he said to me was, \u2018Sam, remember one thing: Always, always, always remember a veteran, no matter what,\u2019\u201d Kuchwara recalled.<\/p>\n
The Cost of Freedom tribute includes panels memorializing those who have made the ultimate sacrifice from World War I through Operation Enduring Freedom.<\/p>\n
The exhibits come as the nation this year celebrates the 250th anniversary of the United States. Scranton last month also celebrated the city\u2019s 160th anniversary.<\/p>\n
Officials\u2019 comments on the exhibit:<\/p>\n
\u2022 Scranton Mayor Paige Gebhardt Cognetti: \u201cScranton and Northeastern Pennsylvania have an incredible record of service to our country, and we owe a debt of gratitude to the service members who have made the ultimate sacrifice. We are honored to partner with Lackawanna County to present this solemn tribute to our late heroes and the families of those from our area who continue to fight for our freedom. This event presents a powerful addition to Scranton\u2019s celebrations in honor of America\u2019s 250th\u00a0birthday.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2022 Lackawanna County Commissioner Chris Chermak: \u201cI am proud to announce our partnership with the City of Scranton to co-sponsor America\u2019s Freedom Tribute, a powerful tribute honoring our veterans and fallen heroes from World War I through Operation Enduring Freedom, set for October 2-4, 2026, at Nay Aug Park. With Pennsylvania ranking fourth in the nation for veteran population, this tribute underscores our commitment to honoring those who served. We invite the community to join us in this meaningful remembrance.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2022 Lackawanna County Commissioner Bill Gaughan: \u201cMany thousands of Lackawanna County residents, over many decades, have given their all \u2014 sometimes including their lives \u2014 for their fellow citizens, their country, and fundamental principles of the American idea. It\u2019s truly fitting to honor them with this traveling tribute at Nay Aug Park, and we\u2019re proud to join the city in doing so.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2022 Lackawanna County Commissioner Chairman Thom Welby: \u201cI am particularly proud for our county to bring this important Memorial Wall to our region, not only to impress upon and reinforce the significance and importance of what past, present and future military service provides for in our country and community \u2014 but also to celebrate, honor and welcome home our Vietnam veterans. These men and women were the \u2018forgotten veterans\u2019 as a result of tumultuous times in the 60s and 70s. I urge all of our residents to join in the participation of this event while thanking all veterans for their service and sacrifice.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Scranton and Lackawanna County will co-sponsor in the fall a traveling wall honoring the veterans of the Vietnam…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":184426,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[182,139,178,180,179,181],"class_list":["post-184425","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news","tag-top-stories-stt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184425","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=184425"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184425\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/184426"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=184425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=184425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=184425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}