Memorial for Kenneth Worley
Memorial for fallen soldier
No money raised for Marine’s remembrance
Dad was just shown this article about our Medal of Honor Hero Kenneth Worley written by Steve Lynn with The Daily Times in Farmington NM. This story highlights the long time efforts of our close friend Bruce Salisbury.
Bruce Salisbury wants people to remember Marine Lance Cpl. Kenneth Lee Worley. Salisbury, a veteran of World War II and the Korean War, wears a button with a photo of Worley on his shirt collar. "He’s one of my heroes," Salisbury said.
The city lacks a memorial for Worley, who gave his life for fellow soldiers and earned the Medal of Honor. That has Salisbury, of Aztec, pushing the city to announce it has dedicated land for a memorial to Worley on March 25, or National Medal of Honor Day.
Marine Corps League and city officials say a memorial will be built, but they have not established a timeline. Details of plans to build one are sketchy six months after those officials learned about him and four decades after Worley died. Worley’s family and Marines that served with him have waited too long, Salisbury said. "That’s a long time for them to wait to have him recognized and more than just having his name on a rock," he said.
Worley died Aug. 12, 1968, at age 20, when he threw himself on a grenade nearest him and his comrades, according to his medal’s citation. His body absorbed the force of the explosion so his five comrades sustained only minor wounds. "Through his extraordinary initiative and inspiring valor in the face of almost certain death, he saved his comrades from serious injury and possible loss of life," the citation says.
Salisbury hopes donations will fund a bronze memorial statue of Worley in his military uniform, looking at a boy in the Young Marines. The local Marine Corps League has other plans. The league wants a large rock placed at the entrance of All Veterans Memorial Park with a plaque naming Worley as a Medal of Honor recipient, said Bill Wells, commandant for the league in Aztec. The league has neither set a deadline, nor has it raised any money, though it is seeking private donations and state funding for the memorial, Wells said. The league does not have final design plans yet. "We’re on top of it," Wells said. "We’re doing this (as) fast as we can but it seems like we get a few interruptions every once in a while and sometimes the wheels of progress turn slowly."
Kenneth Worley’s achievement
Worley’s grave in Westminster, Calif., is marked with a bronze plaque saying he achieved the award. A plaque in Edmonds, Wash., town hall also lists him, though he never lived there; his foster parents did. Worley’s name is engraved on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in Farmington.
The machine gunner and rifleman is one of 293 Marines and more than 3,400 service members to receive the medal since it was established during the Civil War.
Born in Farmington on April 27, 1948, Worley is the only Marine born in New Mexico to earn the award, said Terence W. Barrett, a psychologist and instructor at North Dakota State University who has written an unpublished book about Medal of Honor recipients. Barrett researched Worley and 180 other Medal of Honor recipients as part of a study on bravery. There are a "multitude" of hospitals, airports, parks, streets, schools, highways, bridges, playgrounds, scholarships and others named for the recipients, Barrett said. The U.S. Navy alone has named 55 ships after award recipients whom Barrett studied. Some World War II recipients had ships named for them before that war ended. Other recipients have had to wait much longer, some 20 to 60 years, as the military investigated their actions to determine whether to give an award and then for sponsorship of a memorial.
"The tribute in Farmington to Kenneth Worley coming 40 years after his actions is not entirely unusual," Barrett said. The city, Marine Corps League and others should take responsibility for getting the memorial built, he said.
Mayor Bill Standley said the Marine Corps League must take the lead in building it. "The city’s role is to assist them in any way that we can in accomplishing the completion of the memorial," said Standley, a member of the league. The city has agreed to a "possible" site off Tucker Avenue, the entrance to All Veterans Memorial Park. Standley said fund-raising events could set up an account with the city so that people may make tax-deductible donations. "Worley is a Marine Corps brother and I want to see it happen," he said.
A Work in progress
Salisbury values that Farmington has a Medal of Honor recipient. "You could go to a lot of towns in America and ask them how many Medal of Honor recipients are born in their town or city and they would say, none,’" he said. He hopes that city officials and others will take steps — for instance, by announcing plans on National Medal of Honor Day — to get a memorial built at some point. "It’s a work in progress like every memorial," he said.
Anyone who would like to donate to the memorial of Medal of Honor recipient Lance Cpl. Kenneth Lee Worley may call Bill Wells at (505) 801-6104 or (505) 324-8155.
Steve Lynn: slynn@daily-times.com
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