MAKAWAO - A new memorial has been established to honor Purple Heart recipients from Maui.
The memorial has been a two-year project of Vietnam veteran Nelson Jacintho, commander of the Military Order of the Purple Heart, Maui County Chapter No. 779, and his younger sister, Joslyn Minobe.
Hand carved in Indian red granite, the 3,000-plus-pound memorial was erected about two weeks ago at the Maui Veterans Cemetery in Maka-wao. A dedication has been set for 10 a.m. Saturday. The event is open to the public.
Both Jacintho and Minobe teared up last week as they talked about the community support behind their project and the result of back-and-forth communications with the memorial crafters in Vermont.
"It's just beautiful," said Minobe, a Haiku resident who used her experience as a thrift store volunteer to raise the $7,900 it took to purchase the memorial.
Fundraising, according to Minobe, was the easy part. She made and sold sushi to friends and family, coordinated a rummage sale that raked in a little more than $1,000, and wrote letter after letter to businesses around Maui County.
Jacintho's job was to pick up donation letters at the post office. "Every day, he would go to the mailbox, and there were envelopes after envelopes coming in," Minobe said.
"That was really inspiring," added Jacintho, who was injured when a rocket exploded near him while on a "search and destroy" mission in Vietnam in 1969.
The harder part of the project was ensuring that the memorial was created to a high standard and that delivery to Maui went without incident.
"Just waiting for it to come in, that was painful because it took more than a year," Minobe said.
She has since written mahalo letters to all the donors, including readers of The Maui News who learned from the news columns about Jacintho's wish to get a memorial on Maui for his fellow Purple Heart recipients.
"It means a lot to the veterans," Jacintho said.
Pulling out a write-up on the purpose of the memorial, Jacintho said he hoped it would help citizens to remember sacrifices in service of country and to promote peace through education and understanding of the American spirit and pride in being American.
One of the individual donors to the project wrote a heartwarming letter to Jacintho, identifying himself as the son of a Purple Heart recipient.
"To me, the $10 check meant just as much as the $200 check," he said.
Initially, Minobe said she thought $6,000 would cover costs, but the price went up toward the end of fundraising, and she and Jacintho had to make more appeals for private contributions.
"That last two thousand was like pulling out teeth, but we got it," Jacintho said.
The Vietnam War veteran of the Army's 101st Airborne said he received his Purple Heart while on a "search and destroy" mission in 1969 in the A Shau Valley, a major entry route into South Vietnam used by Communist forces.
A rocket exploded, maybe 10 feet away, he said. It threw a tree stump at him that knocked him unconscious and embedded shrapnel in him from his head to his ankle. He was found bleeding from his eyes, ears and nose.
"Both my eardrums were blown open," he said. "I was completely deaf for quite a while. They used to write to me on the chalkboard."
He spent four months in Japan recuperating. He regained some of his hearing and today still uses hearing aids.
The Purple Heart is a United States military decoration awarded in the name of the president to those who have been wounded or killed while serving on or after April 5, 1917. There are Purple Heart memorials in every state. Hawaii's is on Oahu.
The Maui County Purple Heart chapter sought and was granted permission to erect a memorial here dedicated to local recipients, who Jacintho estimates number more than 100.
He said a decision on whether the names of the Purple Heart recipients will be engraved on the memorial has not yet been made.
"We just wanted to get the memorial up first," he said.
Words engraved on the memorial mirror those on similar memorials at other sites across the country: "My stone is red for the blood they shed. The medal I bear is my country's way to show they care. If I could be seen by all mankind maybe peace will come in my lifetime."
At Saturday's dedication, the Maui County Purple Heart Chapter 779 also will sell tickets to an Aug. 28 fundraising dinner to support the soldiers in other endeavors. The tickets are $10 for a course of five main dishes, dessert and a drink. For more information, contact Jacintho at 572-9180 or 298-8610.
* Claudine San Nicolas can be reached at claudine@mauinews.com.
