NEWPORT — The fundraising goal of $4,500 has been reached to purchase and erect a stone monument to honor the late Pfc. Terry Whittaker, the forth and last Newport soldier to die in the Vietnam Conflict.
Bob Dombroski, organizer of the fundraising effort, said he expects the monument to be in place by August in the Harold L. Ransom and William F. Tracey Park on the bank of the south branch of the Sugar River just east of the Elm Street Bridge.
Whittaker, a 20-year-old Marine was injured on April 8, 1967 when the amtrac he was driving struck a hostile mine that detonated while on patrol. He died a day later after suffering first and second degree burns over 95 percent of hid body.
At the time, Whittaker was the son of Henry J. Whittaker and Betty Parizo, both of Newport. He enlisted in the Marine Corps on May 31, 1966.
Dombroski, a resident of East Mountain Road in Newport, felt something should be done to honor Whittaker 52 years after he died following the accident in the vicinity of Quang Ngai, Republic of Vietnam.
The stone will be approximately 3 to 4-feet wide, around 5 feet high and 18 inches thick. A bronze plaque will be about 18 by 24 inches, Dombroski said.
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