Repairs to Patriots Peace Memorial Nearly Complete

LOUISVILLE, KY. (The Courier-Journal)

Driving east along River Road, Susan Clements began noticing a white stone structure called the Patriots Peace Memorial and was drawn to stop to take a closer look.

She realized it was a place her late father, Lt. Lasley “Kirk” Lacewell Jr., a Navy aviator, could be honored and remembered. He died in 1955 at age 29, when he was co-pilot of a plane that crashed on a snowy night in the mountains in California during a training flight.

The memorial was built in 2002 to honor members of the armed services who died while on active duty but not in combat. It was proposed by then-Jefferson County Judge-Executive Rebecca Jackson, who was inspired by the death in 1998 of a pilot she had known since he was a youngster.

Even as a 5-year-old at the time of his death, Clements, who lives in the Cherokee Triangle, had memories of her dad, a Texas native who had joined the service in Henderson, Ky., served in World War II and gone to officer training school at Berea College.

She recalled this week at the memorial how she tried to comfort her mother after the accident when she found her sitting on the edge of the bed crying at their Carmel, Calif., home — knowing that he would not be coming home. “What I remember is that it took several days to find the wreckage,” Clements said.

Clements got in touch last year with the overseers of the memorial, which has been undergoing a $78,000 restoration project since February. She will be presented with a glass plaque with her father’s name and branch of service on it at an annual Memorial Day ceremony May 26 at the site.

Tammy Wells, chairwoman of the memorial’s board, said most of the names were supplied by the U.S. Department of Defense, but that as years go by more people, such as Clements, come forward to tell their stories.

Clements’ father was buried in Arlington Cemetery in Virginia, but she didn’t visit his grave site until she was 30. “I’d like to be able to come sit here,” Clements said. “To have something this close is going to be wonderful.”

His plaque will be mounted later at the memorial, along with three others honoring fallen Navy members. That will bring the total to 444 names.

Among the other three is one who died in September, Jonathan S. Gibson, 32, a graduate of Central Hardin High School. He was in an accident after his helicopter landed on the deck of a guided-missile destroyer in the Red Sea, where he was delivering supplies and personnel, Jo Ann Karen Marie Lake, his mother, said this week by phone from Fort Knox, where she works.

A headstone for him also been approved at Arlington National Cemetery, and she said she’s grateful that he will now be honored in this area. He was tall and loved flying, she said, so she has asked that his name be placed high on the memorial wall. “I think going there will help me,” she said.

The others whose names will be “enshrined” are:

• Terry L. Cole, 21, who graduated from Ahrens High School in 1973 and died at sea in 1977, after becoming entangled in a boarding net during a training salvage operation near Coronado, Calif.

• Delbert L. Brown, 24, who died in 1957 when his aircraft crashed into the Bering Sea off the coast of Alaska. Brown was valedictorian of his Male High School class and a 1955 graduate of the University of Louisville Speed School.

All the glass nameplates are being redone by Kentucky Mirror and Plate Glass Co. so that the sandblasted names, which are painted black, are on the outside rather than the inside of the plaques — where they can be repainted as the sun causes them to fade over time.

Private donors have provided nearly $62,000 of the project cost, and Wells said she has received a commitment of $5,000 in city funds with help from Mayor Greg Fischer. The Metro Council is expected to vote on a request by Councilman Ken Fleming Thursday to allot another $5,000.

The land for the memorial was donated by philanthropist David Jones Sr. and deeded to Metro Parks, Wells said.

Reporter Martha Elson can be reached at (502) 582-7061. Follow her on Twitter at @MarthaElson_cj.

See full article: https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/local/stmatthews/2014/05/07/repairs-patriots-peace-memorial-nearly-complete/8815141/