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Considerable cloudiness with occasional rain showers. High near 60F. Winds ENE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 50%..
Mostly cloudy. Low 46F. Winds NE at 5 to 10 mph.
Tammy Bowers, left front, and Byron Walters put a bench in place at Aiken County Veterans Memorial Park on Wednesday. Looking on are Robert Neal, left in the background, Lucy Dillon, Neal Dillon and Lowell Koppert.
Lucy Dillon cleans one of the six black granite benches that were placed in Aiken County Veterans Memorial Park on Wednesday.
Byron Walters, left, and Tammy Bowers move a black granite bench to its location at Aiken County Veterans Memorial Park on Wednesday.
Tammy Bowers, left front, Byron Walters and Lowell Koppert put a bench in place at Aiken County Veterans Memorial Park on Wednesday. Looking on are Robert Neal, left in the background, Lucy Dillon and Neal Dillon.
Lucy Dillon cleans one of the six black granite benches that were placed in Aiken County Veterans Memorial Park on Wednesday.
Lucy Dillon, second from right, gets ready to clean a black granite bench that was placed in Aiken County Veterans Memorial Park on Wednesday. Looking on are Neal Dillon, left, Robert Neal and Lowell Koppert.
Tammy Bowers, left front, and Byron Walters put a bench in place at Aiken County Veterans Memorial Park on Wednesday. Looking on are Robert Neal, left in the background, Lucy Dillon, Neal Dillon and Lowell Koppert.
Lucy Dillon cleans one of the six black granite benches that were placed in Aiken County Veterans Memorial Park on Wednesday.
Byron Walters, left, and Tammy Bowers move a black granite bench to its location at Aiken County Veterans Memorial Park on Wednesday.
Tammy Bowers, left front, Byron Walters and Lowell Koppert put a bench in place at Aiken County Veterans Memorial Park on Wednesday. Looking on are Robert Neal, left in the background, Lucy Dillon and Neal Dillon.
Lucy Dillon cleans one of the six black granite benches that were placed in Aiken County Veterans Memorial Park on Wednesday.
Lucy Dillon, second from right, gets ready to clean a black granite bench that was placed in Aiken County Veterans Memorial Park on Wednesday. Looking on are Neal Dillon, left, Robert Neal and Lowell Koppert.
Using a brightly colored cloth and Invisible Glass spray cleaner, Lucy Dillon wiped off the dust from each black granite bench after it was placed on a concrete pad at Aiken County Veterans Memorial Park on Wednesday.
There were six of the newly delivered seats in all, one apiece to honor five of the U.S. military’s branches – Air Force, Army, Coast Guard, Marine Corps and Navy – along with another to recognize prisoners of war and those missing in action.
“You can’t leave them like this,” said Dillon, who sat on the ground while buffing the benches until they gleamed. “They’re for our fallen soldiers, and we’re not showing respect if we don’t make sure they look good.”
Plans call for a seventh bench, which will honor the military’s sixth and newest branch, Space Force, to eventually be put in the park.
Dillon and her husband, Neal, are the parents of Marine Cpl. Matthew Dillon, who was killed while serving in Iraq in 2006.
His name is engraved on the park’s black granite memorial wall along with the names of others who “paid the ultimate price for our freedoms,” said Lowell Koppert, chairman of the Aiken County Veterans Council, or ACVC.
Koppert was with Neal and Lucy Dillon at the park along with Joe Featherston and Robert Neal of the Marine Corps League's James L. Hammons Detachment No. 939.
Byron Walters, owner of New Future Granite in Aiken, brought the benches to the park on a truck, and Tammy Bowers helped him install the seats.
“I think these benches are of the caliber to honor those men on that wall,” Neal Dillon said.
He and his wife are active in multiple veterans’ organizations, including the Marine Corps League’s Hammons Detachment and ACVC.
The Dillons also played important roles in getting the benches for the park.
Originally the seats were headed to the grounds of the Patriots Point Naval & Maritime Museum in Mount Pleasant.
The Dillons served on a committee that raised tens of thousands of dollars for the S.C. Gold Star Families Memorial Monument, which was unveiled in early 2018 at Patriots Point.
“The benches were made to go down there with the monument, but Patriots Point decided not to let us have enough land to put the benches on,” said Lucy Dillon, who is the treasurer of the S.C. Department of American Gold Star Mothers.
The committee had ordered the monument and benches from New Future Granite, and Walters agreed to store the seats for free until another location could be found for them.
With the blessing of their fellow committee members, the Dillons “went to the Aiken County Veterans Council and said, ‘We’ve got six beautiful granite benches we would like to donate to the park,’ and they said, ‘Great, we would like to have those,’” Neal Dillon said. “They thought they (the seats) would set off that beautiful black (memorial) wall.”
New amenities and upgrades have become commonplace at Veterans Memorial Park recently.
Through an agreement with Aiken County, ACVC “is essentially the responsible governing body for the park,” Koppert said. “If anybody wants to do something out here, they need the permission of the Aiken County Veterans Council.
“We work hand in hand with (County Administrator) Clay Killian and (County Deputy Administrator) Brian Sanders,” Koppert continued. “They’re very receptive, and they have been very accommodating in finding funds for improvements.”
Hangers for wreaths have been installed, and young evergreen trees were planted behind the memorial wall. The woody perennial plants will provide an attractive background when they grow larger.
“The lower portion of the memorial wall was white, and we have painted it black,” Koppert said.
That change was needed, he explained, because the lighter area drew attention away from the wall’s darker part.
“The county graciously came in and redid the lighting,” Koppert said. “There were these big, giant old-school lights. The new lights are tremendously better.”
Koppert also pointed out the park’s branches of the service flags.
“They’re all brand new,” he said. “The creases haven’t even come out of them yet. And it looks like the American and South Carolina flags may be newer as well.”
As for the park’s future, “I would like to see the grounds here rival those of some of our area golf courses,” Koppert said. “We’ve obviously got some issues with the grass and stuff like that.”
He also talked about an ACVC fundraising effort involving the new evergreen trees. Each $350 donation will buy a plaque that will be placed in front of one of the plants.
For more information about ACVC, visit aikencountyveterans.org.
The Veterans Memorial Park is at 1435 Richland Ave. East in Aiken.
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