The Path of Freedom

The 1946-47 Bremerton High School Student Body raised the money to build a fitting memorial for the veterans of World War II…Memorial Stadium.  They named it for the many classmates, friends, neighbors, and family in this community who labored for freedom in some fashion during the great conflict.

 Hundreds of thousands of people have entered this stadium not realizing how much the construction of this arena has meant to the Kitsap community.  Only the 1,406 Bremerton High students who raised $39,562.00 to build the stadium truly appreciate its worth.

 The aim of the Semancik Foundation was to expand the project started sixty years ago by creating a personalized veteran’s memorial and flag plaza in Bremerton’s Memorial Stadium called “The Path of Freedom”  There is no other veteran’s memorial like this on any high school campus in the entire Northwest.

The park is unique in that the names of all those in Kitsap County who made the supreme sacrifice are engraved on granite in the flag plaza.  At this moment there are 437 Kitsap military from WW I to present who have been killed in action.  In addition to the fallen heroes inscriptions, commemorative walking-tiles are offered to the public to leave personal remembrances within the park area.

 The Kitsap County area has been a focal point in the deeply rooted military history of our Puget Sound region for so many reasons.  Our organization, named in memory of legendary teacher/coach Chuck Semancik, a WW II veteran (USN) seeks to preserve the memories of this rich history.  The permanent memorial is a source of community pride with a place to memorialize those who gave their lives, limbs and souls in the interest of our freedom.

The Path of Freedom honors those that "gave all " from the Kitsap area GMG2 Perry L Underwood form River Division 554 is one of the men remembered from the Vietnam War 

 

 

Many dignitaries were present for the the dedication and I made sure that they knew about Perry!!!

 

RADM James Symonds, his wife and Chief of Staff at the memorial

Lourdes Alvarado-Ramos Deputy Director, Washington State Department of Veterans Affairs

Congressman Norm Dicks

BHS Advanced Choir   Cassie Gillis, Director                                                 BHS Band, Instructor Sara Weyrick

 

Peninsula Pipes and Drums

 

Kitsap Sun story

Kitsap's War Dead Memorialized at Ceremony Today

By Andrew Binion (Contact)
Originally published 07:35 p.m., November 3, 2007
Updated 07:35 p.m., November 3, 2007

Andrew Binion | Kitsap Sun Visitors to Bremerton Memorial Stadium's memorial for "Our Fallen Heroes" take a moment Saturday to read the names of Kitsap soldiers killed in action.

BREMERTON

The list starts with Peter R. Anderson and ends -- for now -- with Charles B. Hester.

Anderson was killed in World War I; Hester died in Iraq.

Although separated by almost 100 years, the two men were Kitsap County residents, and both were killed fighting for their country.

Anderson and Hester are now two of the 437 names of Kitsap's war dead, and all were memorialized Saturday afternoon at the dedication ceremony of Kitsap's Veterans' Memorial for Our Fallen Heroes.

Officials from all stripes, the military, the federal government, the school district, the Suquamish tribe, spoke to the crowd. The ceremony also included a marching band, a bagpipe-and-drum corps and a men's chorus.

The memorial is located at the southeast corner of Memorial Stadium, and will remain lit day and night for visitors.

Bob Ness, of South Kitsap High School's Class of 1945, dropped out of Washington State University to join the Coast Guard near the end of World War II. He found several names he recognized among the World War II deaths, which make up the vast majority of names. They included Robert E. Haner, who died in the skies of Europe as a tailgunner on a B-17 bomber.

"He was a very close friend," Ness said.

Lane and Deanna Dowell of the Semancik Foundation organized the memorial and researched the names. It cost about $70,000 in materials and labor, with about $43,000 of that donated, Lane Dowell said. He noted that donations came from all over Kitsap County.

There are only two marble slabs beneath the flag that will remain illuminated at night. And although there is room to include soldiers and sailors who may have been accidently missed, or those that organizers couldn't immediately confirm, there isn't enough room to accommodate the names of another World War II or Vietnam.

Deanna Dowell said she shed tears researching all the names.

"There's no way we could put down another granite tile, doggone it," she said. "That's not going to happen."

 

Me at the Memorial