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Veterans Honored with Free Concert

SCRANTON — Veterans Day activities continued this weekend as people in Scranton were treated to a free concert in hopes of building a memorial to honor th...

SCRANTON -- Veterans Day activities continued this weekend as people in Scranton were treated to a free concert in hopes of building a memorial to honor the men and women of our military.

It was a packed house at the Peoples Security Bank Theater at Lackawanna College in downtown Scranton Saturday night. Veterans and their families were treated to the music of Johnny Cash.

The concert was a chance to give veterans a chance to relax through music.

"This is a night to actually have a benefit for our memorial, The Scranton Veterans Memorial," James Kuchwara, VFW Post 25.

The $600,000 project to build a veterans memorial started about a year ago with the VFW of Scranton joining with the Scranton School District to have a place to honor veterans.

The memorial and park will be right next to Scranton High School and Veterans Memorial Stadium.

Nearly 900 veterans from Scranton died at war, half of them are named on other memorials while others are not named anywhere.

"These are men and women who gave their lives and we just feel like it's time to put them all together on one memorial," said Pat Ahern, a veteran.

The monument will have the names of men and women killed in combat dating all the way back to World War I.

"These are the men that went off to war and never came home back to Scranton, so this a project that's well overdue," Kuchwara said.

Jack O'Malley of Scranton has family members who served in past wars.

"Looking at this rendition, it kind of brought memories of the Arizona, somber holy place and hopefully this can be a holy place," said O'Malley.

Any donations made at the concert will go toward the monument, which is expected to be completed in the next couple years.

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