He looked up and saw her face....
the smell of battle...all around the place.
She held his hand, talked softly and tended his wounds
...knowing as he did, he'd be home soon.

He didn't really know what he was dying for...
He just couldn't understand this crazy war.
But a thought kept going through his head,
will anybody remember me after I'm dead?

Then, years later, as he gazed down from above,
there she was again! That face so full of love.
She was touching this huge black wall?
Touching something on it..touching it overall!

He looked more closely. My God Can this be?
She's touching my name! Remembering Me!
he's remembering, remembering even me.
She's remembering....even me.

This Memorial is Dedicated to the Glory of Almighty God in Memory of Men from Vigo County who gave their lives in the Republic of South Vietnam who by their unselfish Patriotism have advanced the American Ideals of Liberty and the Universal Brotherhood of Man.

This Memorial is dedicated to all veterans and civilians who served and supported our nation in time of military conflict. The perpetuation of our constitutional freedoms is owed to these patriotic men and women and children.

Texas A&M University opened in October 1876 and established the Corps of Cadets to fulfill its Congressional mandate to teach military tactics. The students at what was then an all-male institution were required to serve in the corps and follow military discipline. At the center of the Corps and campus activity was the Main Drill Field, where cadets drilled and practiced maneuvers before and after classes. The site of horse-drawn artillery and infantry exercises, as well as student pilot training in the 1920s, the open parade ground also served as the university's early football field prior to construction of a permanent field in 1905. The Aggie Bonfire was held on the Main Drill Field from 1909 until 1955, and students assembled for drills and graduation activities, including the Corps' Final Review. In 1920, A&M's Board of Directors paid tribute to former cadets killed during World War I by planting oak trees around the field. Markers at each tree provided the name, class and site and date of death for each man. The classes of 1923, 1924, 1925 and 1926 placed a granite memorial to the war casualties on the west side of the drill field, which was later named for A&M distinguished alumni Lieutenant General Ormond R. Simpson, a 1936 mechanical engineering graduate of the university. After serving in World War II, Korea and Vietnam, Simpson retired in 1972 and became A&M's Assistant Vice-President for Student Services and head of the School of Military Sciences. He served at the university until retiring in 1985, the year the field was named in his honor. A&M's Main Drill Field is a testament to the school's beginnings as a military and academic institution, as well as a symbol of Aggies' service to their state and nation.

Wiley (1799-1866) and Cynthia Ann Suttle (1811-1884) Thompson brought their eight children and a number of slaves to this area from Alabama in 1847. They purchased a 636-acre tract of land along Larrison Creek where they built a log home on a hill overlooking the creek bottomland. The community that developed nearby became known as Forest and included a store, saloon, mills and cotton gin owned by the family. Four more offspring were born here to the Thompsons, but around 1850, two of their children died and the family reportedly buried them in the corner of the yard where the house once stood. These first burials that began this cemetery are now among the more than thirty that are unmarked; the earliest dated grave is that of Mrs. L.N. Williams, who died in 1863. Those laid to rest here include veterans of the Civil War, World War I, World War II, Korea and Vietnam. Descendants of the Thompsons and families of the forest community continue to contribute to the care and upkeep of this burial ground. The original Thompson home and other early structures are gone, but this cemetery remains as a chronicle of the pioneers and generations who settled and developed this area of Cherokee County.