CHAPEL HILL -- Forty-two years ago today, Jim Merritt was wounded in a combat zone in Vietnam. On Monday night, the outgoing Chapel Hill Town Council member formally asked his colleagues to establish a town memorial to all veterans.
"As this is the 42nd anniversary of my being injured I am proposing that the Town of Chapel Hill consider establishing a memorial/monument commemorating the service of all veterans from the Chapel Hill community," Merritt wrote in his proposal. "This will be a salute to my comrades in arms and to veterans everywhere."
Merritt did not speak Monday. But World War II veteran Robert Patton, who served in France, Germany and Austria, did. He told how the late Roland Giduz had rescued a tarnished bronze plaque honoring the town's WWII veterans from the old Chapel Hill high school when it was on Franklin Street. It now hangs on the wall of the historical society.
