Texas' Ethnically Diverse Memorial

Duke Sundt and his Texas Capitol Vietnam Monument.

I live in small town America, The Original Las Vegas , in New Mexico, which means that folks just wander in from time to time.

A couple of weeks ago, when I had a really fine, mostly woman contracting gang working here, I wandered into the house from the office and encountered a guy wearing a cowboy hat whom I had never met. He told me his name was Duke Sundt and he had dropped in to do some business with the contractors.

The Las Vegas, N.M., code means you have to spend some time jawing with a new found friend, and I quickly discovered that Duke is not only a sculptor , but the sculptor for the Texas Capitol Vietnam Monument due to be installed in Austin this month.

And this is not just any Vietnam remembrance, as Duke told me, but one designed to reflect the ethnic and racial diversity of troops from Texas who served in that war. The 14-foot monument includes an African-American corpsman, a Hispanic scout sniper, an Anglo infantryman and an Indian radioman.

The Texas monument also includes a figure representing a South Vietnamese soldier, the first memorial in the country to do so.

You can check Duke's sculpture and his figures on his website .

More than a half million Texans served in Vietnam, and the Texas Capitol Vietnam Monument committee, led by state Sen. Juan "Chuy" Hinojosa and state Rep. Wayne Smith, has adopted a motto that fits well in the month in which we honor the veterans of all wars: "They offered a monumental sacrifice. We offer our monumental thanks."