Rhode Island’s Vietnam veterans have waited decades for a memorial. Now they know where it will be.

In 1967, Ernie Boisvert returned from Vietnam, having served about a year before he was injured in a rocket launcher attack that killed his platoon’s lieutenant. He came back to a country that was different from when he left it after being drafted at age 20.

“I didn’t want to be seen with my uniform in the city or in the town, because we were not appreciated for what we did,” Boisvert told a crowd of over two dozen veterans and state officials who gathered Tuesday on a grassy parcel downtown beside the Providence River.

“We didn’t go there because we volunteered. Some of them did. I was drafted,” said Boisvert, now 80, of Woonsocket. He serves as president of the Rhode Island state council of the Vietnam Veterans of America.

Boisvert told the crowd assembled that a Vietnam veterans monument could soon occupy the state-owned land on which he stood — a tribute four decades in the making he hopes will materialize sooner rather than later. September marks the 60th anniversary of his departure for the Southeast Asian war zone.

“I’m asking all of you to help us now to make sure that we get this monument done as soon as possible,” Boisvert said. “As I say, I’m 80.”

The monument would honor the approximately 21,000 Rhode Islanders who served during the Vietnam War. The U.S. National Archives lists 209 fatal casualties of the war whose home state of record was Rhode Island. The site chosen for it is on the same walking path that connects the Rhode Island IX Memorial — which honors the nine Rhode Island Marines who were among the 241 U.S. service members killed in the October 1983 terrorist bombing of their barracks in Beirut, Lebanon — with the Remembrance Garden of Great Providence and the Rhode Island Irish Famine Memorial.

Joining Boisvert at Tuesday’s speaking program were Gov. Dan McKee, Rhode Island Director of Veterans Services Kasim J. Yarn, and state Rep. Sam Azzinaro. Also in attendance were Secretary of State Gregg Amore, General Treasurer James Diossa, and state Reps. Carol Hagan McEntee, Deb Fellela, and Arthur Corvese.

Azzinaro, a Westerly Democrat who chairs the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs and who served in both the National Guard and the Army Reserve, thanked the crowd for coming to attend the event despite the not-so-uplifting weather. A rainy spell had been cast over the city all morning, and the crowd gathered underneath tents which had been set up for the event on the land adjacent to 146 Dyer St. in downtown Providence.

“Thank you all for being here on this bright sunny day in Providence,” Azzinaro joked.

Still, Azzinaro said, it was “a terrific day in the city of Providence.”

That’s because it’s taken years — decades, in fact — to confirm a site for a statewide Vietnam memorial.

The newly selected parcel was first announced on Aug. 19, with Azzinaro noting in a press release the rationale for the choice: The state owns the land. There’s parking and street access nearby. The parcel’s close proximity to the 195 District Park and much-loved Pedestrian Bridge situates it in a highly walkable and visible part of the capital city’s downtown area. And the parcel of land is in an attractive waterfront spot, with the planned memorial overlooking the Providence River — a generous view even on a rainy, gray Tuesday afternoon.

Azzinaro previously met with the governor’s team to confirm the state land’s availability. He also conferenced with the Rhode Island Department of Transportation, the I-195 Redevelopment District Commission and Rhode Island Energy to ensure the site’s suitability.

Four decades on

The state has been searching for such a suitable location for practically half of Azzinaro’s life. The 82-year-old state rep described for the crowd the carousel of options that state government has ridden over the years, with the only success being a Vietnam memorial installed at the Rhode Island Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Exeter in 1985.

All other efforts failed, Azzinaro noted, starting with an attempt to build a memorial on the State House grounds in 1983.

“As we know, it did not happen,” Azzinaro said.

Similar attempts in 1986 and 1988 also died, though the latter — which would have appropriated $5,000 for a Vietnam memorial at the then-coming-attraction Waterplace Park, with a POW flag flown overhead — was resurrected in 2016, Azzinaro said.

“Nothing happened,” he reminded the audience.

The current effort started to take shape in 2021, when Azzinaro introduced a resolution to create a commission to study and provide recommendations for a plan to fund, design, and erect a Vietnam memorial in the city of Providence.

The legislature approved Azzinaro’s resolution in 2022, with a final report due by Jan. 31, 2023. That deadline was eventually extended to Jan. 31, 2025, and the same year the House OK’d another extension for the Vietnam Memorial Commission, authorizing its work through April 2028.

Now, Azzinaro, who chairs the commission he helped create, said of the long-anticipated memorial, “This is going to happen right here.”

Still, there’s plenty of work to be done, McKee said, adding he plans to include funding for the memorial’s design in his next state budget proposal. Organizers will also seek private donations to help pay for the project’s realization.

McKee, who graduated from college the same year the draft ended, described the Vietnam War as his generation’s defining conflict.

“I had friends that served,” McKee said. “And friends that didn’t come back. So this is a moment for me, too.”

The governor addressed the veterans in the crowd: “This memorial is one way of saying that we see you, we honor you, and we will never forget you. Serving your country takes courage. We can never fully repay that sacrifice, but we can make sure it’s remembered.”

The Vietnam Veterans of America State Council of Rhode Island has already opened a charitable account for private donations.

State Veterans Services Director Yarn said Tuesday that Vietnam veterans remain Rhode Island’s largest veteran population.

“We should never ever, as a nation, turn our back on the people that volunteered or [were] volun-told to serve their nation,” Yarn said.

For Boisvert, that initial reluctance to don his uniform has long since ceded to the power of his bonds with his fellow servicemembers.

“I was drafted with about 30 guys from here, from Rhode Island,” Boisvert said. “From the day we got drafted to the day we came home, we were together…It’s a brotherhood that you cannot forget. I still get together with these guys once a year.”

Boisvert said his service forged unbreakable bonds with his fellow servicemembers — an ethic of brotherhood which continues to substantiate the Vietnam Veterans of America’s efforts.

The national group’s guiding principle, Boisvert said, is simple: “Never again will one generation of veterans abandon another like they did to us.”

Boisvert’s group has already “lost a few” men over the years, he said, and he’s well aware of the passage of time.

“We need this memorial,” Boisvert said. “We need to thank those who served, and we need it today.”