Kentucky Vietnam Veterans Memorial

It should not seek to imitate other monuments yet it should evoke an emotional remembrance while being aesthetically authentic as a work of art.

"[2] The design unanimously selected was that of Helm Roberts, a Kentucky architect and Naval aviator during the period between Korea and Vietnam.

The groundbreaking ceremony and gnomon dedication, by Governor Martha Layne Collins, was held November 7, 1987.

The names of those missing in action or prisoners of war are located in front of the gnomon, where the shadow never falls.

Veterans Day ceremonies are commemorated by an inscription located on the Plaza where the shadow falls on November 11 at 11:11 AM, the date and time which marked the Armistice in 1918 which ended the first World War.

The curved lines on the plaza mark the location of the summer and winter solstices and show the path of the shortest and longest shadows of the year.

The gnomon was cut from 3⁄16 inch (4.8 mm) thick stainless steel and fabricated in Springfield, Oregon, by metal sculptor and welding engineer Arthur Ross Cady.

[4] The face of each piece was honed to remove saw marks and finished with a sand-blasted surface to provide the lightest possible color to contrast with the gnomon shadow.

All granite fabrication was done in Elberton from computer-generated drawings, which included full sized templates for exact location and spelling of each name.