Greg Wilson/Anderson Observer
Tri-County Technical College rededicated its Vietnam Veterans Memorial on Wednesday, relocating the state’s first Vietnam memorial to a more prominent campus site and expanding it with new marble emblems, a lighted flag plaza and markers inscribed with the names of local service members who died in the war.
The original memorial was dedicated May 25, 1980, and stood at the main entrance of the college’s Pendleton campus for more than four decades. It now sits behind Oconee Hall, one of the most heavily trafficked areas of campus.
College President Galen DeHay said relocating the memorial was intended to give remembrance a more prominent place in the daily life of the college.
“While the memorial’s appearance has been renewed, its purpose remains unchanged: to honor the servicemen from Anderson, Oconee, and Pickens counties who gave their lives during the Vietnam War and to ensure their sacrifice is never forgotten,” DeHay said.
The ceremony, held on Veterans Day, included a presentation of the colors by the Pendleton High School Air Force Junior ROTC, the national anthem performed by TCTC student musicians, and a formal dedication and moment of silence. Veterans in attendance were also recognized.
The college covers Anderson, Oconee and Pickens counties and serves a significant number of veteran students, and provides a dedicated veterans space, Patriot’s Place, where students can receive resources and spend time with other veterans.
“Veterans have found that individuals who are enlisted really form a brotherhood or sisterhood, and that continues way past being in the military,” DeHay said. “We’re really proud to be able to provide spaces like that for our students.”
The memorial is the first Vietnam Veterans Memorial established in South Carolina, and it specifically honors fallen service members from Anderson, Oconee and Pickens counties.
Former TCTC President Don Garrison conceived the memorial in the early 1980s and led fundraising efforts to build it with contributions from students, faculty, staff, the Veterans Club, the American Legion and family and friends of Johnny Purser, former coordinator of the college’s Veterans Affairs program who is also honored with a monument.
Those contributions funded the flags, flagpoles, monuments and stonework for the original memorial.
The original marble monument has been retained. Six marble emblems now represent the branches of the U.S. Armed Forces and are inscribed with the names of local veterans who died in Vietnam.
S.C. Rep. Blake Sanders, R-Anderson, who represents District 9, helped secure support for the memorial’s renewal and relocation and served as the landscape architect of record for the project.
A landscape architect who owns Studio Main, Sanders designed the plans that guided the transformation, according to the college. He said the redesign preserved a promise that the sacrifice of the men honored would not be forgotten.
“As the first Vietnam Veterans Memorial established in South Carolina, this monument holds a special place in our state’s history,” Sanders said. “Its relocation and redesign ensure that future generations remember the service and sacrifice of these local heroes.”
A former TCTC student himself, Sanders said he was approached by DeHay about relocating the memorial and saw the request as more than simply moving a monument.
Sanders said he has a great uncle who served in Vietnam and posts his photograph each Veterans Day. Designing a memorial that would remain meaningful to the community carried personal significance for him, he said.
“These weren’t just names etched in marble,” Sanders said in his remarks. “They were sons, brothers, husbands, fathers, friends, and neighbors. They were young men who answered the call to serve their country and never returned home.”
As a landscape architect, Sanders said places should do more than look beautiful.
“They should mean something, they should tell a story,” he said. “And sometimes they should remind us of the stories that we can never afford to forget.”
DeHay said the relocated memorial will now be seen daily by thousands of students, employees and visitors.
“We hope they will pause, read the names, reflect on the cost of service and freedom, and remember that the history represented here belongs to all of us,” DeHay said.
