by Rick Winterson In the late ‘70s, support was increasing in South Boston to erect a formal memorial of some kind, dedicated to those 25 heroic men from South Boston who lost their lives in Vietnam. It wasn’t only from the friends and relatives of those brave military men – it was a community-wide sentiment. Concerned residents went to work – washing cars, seeking small donations door-to-door, holding Southie “times”, and so on. Major donors or government grants were nowhere to be found. And it worked. Something north of $28,000 was raised; South Boston’s Vietnam Memorial became much more than just a dream. In the fall of 1981, the Memorial was first dedicated. Thirty-five years later, on September 18, in the year of 2016, [...]