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Family proud to have brother's name dedicated at East TN Veterans Memorial

The names of nine veterans from East Tennessee will be dedicated Monday in a ceremony at the East Tennessee Veterans Memorial.

Nine names of fallen heroes have been added to the East Tennessee Veterans Memorial at World's Fair Park.

The names will be dedicated in a ceremony Monday - Memorial Day.

Richard Thurman of Rhea County will be one of the fallen honored. Thurman died in a training accident at Fort Benning in Georgia two months after graduating from the University of Tennessee in 1977.

"For 40 years, nobody really remembered him," Thurman's sister Gloria Thurman said.

Each year the names of servicemen who die in service or whose name was previously inadvertently overlooked are etched into the memorial and dedicated each Memorial Day.

Earlier in the year representatives of the East Tennessee Veterans Memorial Association reached out to Thurman's brother Grover Thurman to verify the details of his service. He was then added to the memorial on the "Peacetime" pillar.

"It's been gratifying to have people come up 38, 40 years later and know that they remember," Gloria Thurman said.

The memorial has become a special place for survivors and family as well as grateful East Tennesseans.

"I love to visit the place," said Bernice Koprince, whose son Billy was killed Dec. 27, 2006, five weeks before he was set to return home from Iraq. "Anyone who's walking through it...I love to take them and I show them my son's name because a lot of times that brings it home to people. They realize it's not just somebody else you know - that it's my son."

The memorial features the names of more than 6,200 veterans from 35 East Tennessee counties. It attests to area residents who have died in service since the start of World War I.

According to the East Tennessee Veterans Memorial Association, there are 32 granite pylons, each 9 feet high, 3 feet wide and 1 foot deep.

A reading of the names begins at dawn Monday.

Afterward, according to the ETVMA, the nine new names will be dedicated, followed by the annual Memorial Day Service organized by American Legion Post 2.

The event will take place rain or shine.

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