By Jessica Sanders

Triad Park is especially beautiful in the morning.  If you visit the park shortly after 7am on a weekday, you will see a lone runner or two, maybe a couple walking their dog, possibly a disc golfer practicing their putting.  Mostly though, it is peaceful and restorative with the only sounds coming from a unique melody composed by the raspy calls of Eastern Phoebes, the soft hum of a distant lawnmower, and the resolute flapping of American flags.

The flags are located at Triad Park’s Carolina Field of Honor Veterans Memorial.  Triad Park, a partnership of Forsyth and Guilford Counties, is located in Kernersville and is home to the second largest Veterans Memorial on the east coast – only after those located in Washington, DC.  The Memorial includes impressive obelisks, flags, monuments, a water feature, and walkways.  It was on one of these quiet, Tuesday mornings that I had the honor of speaking with four veterans who dreamed and realized the Memorial.

I spoke with Bill Moss, Roger Stockton, Scott Matthews, and Robert O’Hanlon – all members of the Carolina Field of Honor executive board, and former Marine Corps officers.  (Which was the cause of much ribbing towards this “Army Brat.”)  They shared with me the conception of the Carolina Field of Honor, some of their favorite memories, and their hopes for the future of the Memorial.

The group calls Bill Moss “The Founder.”  In 2007, Bill decided that the Triad needed a memorial.  It was as simple and ambitious as that.  He reasoned that, “We have all these great schools, libraries, churches, golf courses, arts organizations…all these things that are here because of freedom.  It is important for young people to know about freedom.”  The location was driven by the fact that our area has the highest concentration of veterans in the state, and Bill wanted the Memorial to be erected as close to the center of Forsyth and Guilford counties as possible.

The next step was to form an executive committee charged with raising the funds for the project.  Through the War Memorial Foundation, they formed a committee of 15 members which included officers and enlisted from all branches, men and women of various ethnicities.  Starting with only $418 in the bank, the committee knocked on doors and gave, according to Scott Matthews, over 180 presentations to civic organizations and other groups hoping to raise $2 million for their capital campaign.  The first donation was $1 and a mustard seed, from Bill’s plumber.  Bill Moss recalled his plumber’s explanation of the mustard seed referencing Matthew 17:20, “He said that if you have faith of a mustard seed, you can move mountains.”  And move mountains they did.  The Carolina Field of Honor opened in May 2014 and to-date, the committee has raised over $4 million dollars–largely funded by grass roots contributions without the use of professional fundraisers.

Today the Memorial draws visitors each day–whether they are tour groups, school children, veterans, families, or just people passing through the area, the Memorial is never empty.  To tour the grounds and read each historical marker will take you an hour and fifteen minutes.  However, most visitors quietly relax on one of the benches for a while longer.

Robert O’Hanlon shared that one of his favorite Memorial memories is of a young Air Force soldier who proposed to his girlfriend while he was on-leave in front of the Air Force section of the Memorial.  Their friends and families hid behind one of the walls and jumped out after she accepted.

Roger Stockton described not a specific memory, but a regular occurrence.  Often, he will see an older veteran with their family and he will watch how that veteran acts–how they carry themselves with pride upon entering the Memorial, but also with a sense of deep gratitude and amazement.  Roger says that these veterans know the feeling that, “This is for me–this was built for me,” and there are, more often than not, tears flowing.

Bill, Roger, Scott, and Robert all hope that the Memorial will stand tall as a tribute to all those who have and will serve, and that it will teach younger generations of the sacrifices of the men and women who came before them.

As the temperature began to rise and the calm was replaced with children heading to the nearby playground, we closed our conversation with more than a few of us wiping our eyes.  The pride that these four men feel for what they have accomplished is tangible and well deserved.  As I gathered my things, feeling overwhelmed with thankfulness and patriotism, Bill jumped in.  “I want to add something.  People always ask me why this was not done before.  I tell them, because there were not any Marines running it!”  While he is joking (I think), I could not agree more–the Memorial was and still is an act of love for these four Marines.

For more information on the Carolina Field of Honor please visit www.NCWMF.org or call 336.851.0999.