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Published Thursday, November 05, 2009 in Local

Medal of Honor statues to be installed today

By Winston Skinner

The Times-Herald

Statues of Coweta County's Medal of Honor heroes -- Col. Joe M. Jackson and the late Maj. Stephen W. Pless -- are scheduled to be installed at Veterans Memorial Plaza today.

The statues are the culmination of a project that has taken several years. A committee appointed by the Newnan City Council raised funds to create the tribute to local veterans at the park at Jackson Street and Temple Avenue.

A brick plaza with plaques memorializing Cowetans who died in war from World War I forward was dedicated on Memorial Day.

The statues of the two Medal of Honor recipients were created by Texas sculptors Mark Austin Byrd and Jenelle Armstrong Byrd. The statue grouping will depict the two Vietnam-era military men talking to a boy and a girl.

Engraved bricks were sold to help finance the overall project. Several large donations -- including one from the city of Newnan and another from Coweta County -- helped bring the plaza to completion.

The Veterans Memorial Plaza Committee met Tuesday at Newnan City Hall to discuss plans for next week's dedication program that will be held in conjunction with the annual Veterans Day program sponsored by American Legion Post 57.

The program will start at 11 a.m. on Nov. 11, Veterans Day, at Veterans Memorial Plaza. Jackson is coming from Washington state where he now resides, and relatives of both Jackson and Pless are expected.

Jackson and Ken Ray, a first cousin of Pless, will be speaking. Students from Atkinson Elementary School will bring patriotic music.

At Tuesday's meeting, chairman Rob Tornow talked about the progress on the plaza. "It really looks great," he said.

As the meeting was taking place, workers with ML Masonry were putting the bases for the four sculptures in place. The design calls for concrete bases topped with granite to form a pentagon.

Committee member Joe Brooks said the Newnan-Coweta Historical Society will have a table at the Veterans Day program. NCHS has mounted a campaign to gather memorabilia from local veterans and their families for the society's collection.

Brooks also shared a brochure that will be used to promote the project. "On the inside is the form that you fill out" to make a donation, he noted.

The Veterans Day program is expected to last about an hour. The Byrds -- a husband-and-wife team -- will be coming from Dallas for the statue dedication.

Both Jackson and Pless were honored for daring rescues of American soldiers during the Vietnam War.

Jackson piloted a C-123 Provider transport aircraft to conduct a rescue on May 12, 1968, near Kham Duc. The rescue by Pless, a UH-1 Iroquois "Huey" helicopter pilot, was near Quang Nai on Aug. 19, 1967.

The two Newnan natives received the Medal of Honor from Pres. Lyndon Johnson in a White House ceremony on Jan. 16, 1969 -- just four days before Johnson left office.

Pless, who died in a 1969 motorcycle accident, was the only Marine aviator to receive the Medal of Honor during the Vietnam War.

Jackson was in the U. S. Army Air Corps and then the U.S. Air Force. He was in the military for 33 years -- including service in World War II and Korea, as well as Vietnam.

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