High-tech memorial is planned to honor veterans By Chris Carroll Of The Post-Dispatch The veterans' service organizations of Jefferson County have united behind a plan that calls for a high-tech monument to all Jefferson County veterans in the lobby of the county's new administration building in Hillsboro. Plans for the monument were unveiled at a press conference Friday at Jefferson College. Unlike typical veterans memorials, the planned Wall of Honor is not a long list of those killed in action with their names carved in granite. Instead, the monument's physical aspect is composed of a keyboard and a bank of four flat-screen televisions. But the heart of the monument is not the assemblage of electronic gear that will be set up near the entrance of the new administration building, due to open this spring. It's what will be flashing across those four screens every day that will make the Wall of Honor special. The veterans planning the monument want to enter a name, picture and service history for every Jefferson Countian who has served in military uniform - back as far as the American Revolution - into the computer controlling the monument. After an electronic flag-raising each morning, faces and stories will be drawn at random from the computer database and pop up on the screens all day long. Visitors who want to look up a particular veteran need only key in his or her name. David Christian, who envisioned the monument and is leading the drive to build it, said he knew of no similar monument anywhere in the nation. "This is completely original," he said. "We have a unique memorial here. We are leading the nation in this." In the next few months, Christian said he and many others would seek individual, club and corporate donations to help pay the estimated $50,000 bill for the monument. He said building the database of Jefferson County veterans would take even more work than raising the money. "Our plan is to have this in place when the administration building opens," he said. "Obviously, we won't have all the names by then. That's going to take five years." Thus, the veteran agencies are looking for genealogists, data-entry specialists, historians and others to help compile the database. To receive a form to add your name or the name of a relative to the database, write to David S. Christian, 2082 State Road AA, Festus, Mo. 63028, or call Christian at 931-3568. Desoto Joe/The Record Man