By STEPHANIE LONGO
For Go Lackawanna
A planned monument for the first American woman killed in Vietnam needs community support in order to be unveiled as scheduled in October. Second Lieutenant Carol Ann Drazba, R.N., a 1961 graduate of Dunmore High School, was killed in Vietnam on Feb. 18, 1966 when the helicopter in which she was riding with six other people became entangled in high tension wires and crashed outside of Saigon. A local veterans’ advocacy group, The Friends of the Forgotten, has been working since February 2010 to raise money to erect a monument in her honor along Dunmore’s Blakely Street adjacent to the borough building. “This is a young woman who grew up in Dunmore; she did not come from a wealthy family but she worked hard and she committed herself to a life of service,” said Anne Domin, Drazba’s friend and nursing school classmate. “This is somebody that the community can be proud of because she dedicated her life to serving other people in the capacity of nursing. To think that the community would want to honor someone like this who really loved people and life is a great thing. It was her goal to be of service to others.” A groundbreaking ceremony was held on April 27 and the major fundraiser for the monument was held on Nov. 20 of last year when Chris McIntyre, director of the film “21 and a Wakeup,” an American war drama shot in Vietnam detailing the lives of Army nurses, held a screening of his film at Lackawanna College’s Mellow Theater. All proceeds from the event were to go toward the monument’s construction. “When I saw how much this [film] touched people and how emotionally affected they were by it, it occurred to me that I might be able to use the proceeds to make a substantial difference in people’s lives from a charity standpoint,” McIntyre said in the Nov. 14, 2010 edition of Go Lackawanna. “For this woman [Drazba] not to have a statue is just wrong, I want to help.”
However, McIntyre may not be able to contribute the money needed for the monument in time for the scheduled dedication date of Oct. 8. McIntyre and his brother, for whom he cares, are both in treatment for severe forms of cancer. “I would love to help as much as I possibly can and certainly I can help to some degree financially and, with a little luck, I might be able to help to an enormous degree financially,” McIntyre said. “It all depends on my health and my brother’s health because that is what is unknown. I am still 100 percent committed to it but my health has taken a much quicker turn for the worse than I had anticipated when I started this.” According to McIntyre, costs for the monument, originally slated to cost $50,000 are now estimated at $65,000, and fundraising efforts have fallen short. “I am happy to donate from my pocket whatever is not raised by Friends of the Forgotten or through the movie screening in November, which raised a lot less than what we had anticipated; we had hoped for the best,” he said. “My own participation in this was predicated on substantial local community support from a practical matter, not from an emotional standpoint. I have not lost one bit of enthusiasm for the project, it is just a question of practicality because of my health.” Kim Atkinson, the member of The Friends of the Forgotten who came up with the idea for the Drazba monument, is now asking local businesses and members of the community to help raise funds needed for its completion. “I have been in touch with so many organizations and people in the last few weeks and, after having spoken to other members of the Friends of the Forgotten, I believe that we can raise the needed money ourselves,” she said. “We don’t have to rely on one single benefactor. Members of the community and members of the nursing profession, the people who knew Carol Ann personally, and the veterans’ organizations from all across the country are pulling together and we will do this ourselves.” One such way that Atkinson hopes people will rally behind the Drazba memorial is by purchasing pavers to line a walkway leading to the monument from Blakely Street. The pavers were initially included in the project as a way to offset the extra $15,000 added to the project so to add more pavers to the area surrounding the monument for people to commemorate their loved ones who served in our country’s armed forces. “People aren’t just donating the paver towards Carol, they can donate the paver in memory or in honor of their father, their grandfather, their uncle, their nephew… anyone who served, who was lost in war or who is still serving,” Atkinson said. Joanne Katula, Drazba’s sister, also expressed her desire to see the community support this monument because her sister’s model can serve as an example to others. “Carol was a resident of Dunmore for the short lifespan that she had; I would hope that the community would want to get involved and see this completed,” she said. “