Why this site for this Memorial

1st Lt. Stephen H. Doane was born Oct. 13, 1947, in Beverly Hospital, where his father, who grew up in Swampscott, worked while attending Tufts Medical School. 

Stephen Doane spent only six months of his life in Beverly, but the city's Vietnam veterans have claimed him as one of their own. Their organization is called the Beverly Vietnam Veterans 1st Lt. Stephen H. Doane Post 1, and their Web site includes Doane's Medal of Honor citation and photos of him as a child and a young soldier.

Doane was trained as an officer and a Ranger before heading off to Vietnam in January of 1969. "The last thing he said before getting on the plane was, 'Dad, I'm not going to come back a dead hero. I'm going to take care of my men,'" his father said.

It is the right of the city where the person is born to Honor and Remember them.  It is with pleasure that we do so here, a place where Stephen and his Dad got their beginnings.

God Bless the American Servicemen and Women who so proudly and without fault protect a society not matched throughout the World.  And with Military Might, spread Peace to those who want it.