Group Seeks to Relocate Tribute Memorial to Settlers' Park

A tribute to local heroes has sat at Plainfield High School – Central Campus for more than two decades.

Now, the group behind the Tribute Memorial wants to relocate the structure, created in honor of two fallen veterans from Plainfield to recognize those who have given their lives for their country during peacetime.

Members of the tribute committee — Plainfield residents Carolyn Dement, Linda Hanley and Helen Schwab — spoke up at Monday’s Committee of the Whole meeting to request that the memorial be moved to Settlers’ Park.

Trustees and village officials were on board with the effort, which would be funded with donations raised by the committee.

Settlers’ Park, adjacent to Village Hall on Lockport Street, is already home to the village’s Soldier’s Memorial, and an effort is already under way to move another monument — the War Memorial on Route 59 — to the site.

The park is also home to the village’s annual Memorial Day commemoration and the annual Wounded Warrior 5K charity run.

Read: Route 59 War Memorial to Get New Home

Schwab’s son, PHS graduate and Army Chief Warrant Officer Jeffrey Schwab, was piloting a helicopter during peacetime military maneuvers in Honduras when it was forced down by gunfire near the Nicaraguan border on Jan. 11, 1984.

Schwab, a husband and father of two sons, was able to land the helicopter, but was killed by Sandinista gunfire before he could make it to safety.

Less than a year later, another PHS graduate, Air Force Capt. Kevin Kelleher, was killed in a crash during maneuvers in Texas.

The monument honors them and other Americans who died in service to their country during peacetime, reading, “A tribute to those who have sacrificed their lives for our freedom.”

Schwab said her grandson Jason was just nine months old when his father was killed. Since then, he has followed his dad’s footsteps, graduating from West Point and piloting the same type of helicopter his father flew. Now age 30, Jason Schwab recently left the military.

In years past, the Schwab family has attended Memorial Day ceremonies in Plainfield, with a parade winding its way back to Plainfield Central and the memorial. These days, the commemoration ends in Setters’ Park.

Dement said Jason Schwab attended this year’s Memorial Day event and was moved by the tribute to veterans.

“It was heartwarming to their family to see this tribute [at Settlers’ Park],” she said. “It would be wonderful for all the monuments to be there.”

Time for change

The site of the Tribute Memorial was dedicated on Memorial Day 1986, but not fully completed until 1990 — just three weeks before the devastating tornado that destroyed the old Plainfield High School campus.

Dement said the fiberglass monument was broken into two pieces — one of which was found on top of the badly damaged high school — but was repaired and rededicated in 1993 after the new high school building opened.

When the monument was built, Plainfield had just one high school and a population of several thousand people, compared with the four high schools and about 40,000 residents it has now. Back then, PHS was the center of much activity in the village.

“Every thing revolved around the school,” Dement said. “It was the perfect place for it.”

Since then, Plainfield has grown by leaps and bounds. The committee feels Settlers’ Park is now a more fitting home for the memorial.

Village trustees seemed to think so, too.

“It makes perfect sense,” trustee Dan Rippy said.

Trustees Paul Fay, Jim Racich and Margie Bonuchi also voiced support for the proposal.

Village officials are calling upon Plainfield Police Cmdr. Kevin Greco to help the group to work out the logistics of moving the monument. Greco was was instrumental in moving the Soldier’s Monument to Settlers’ Park in 2006 and is also helping organizers with efforts to transplant the War Memorial to the site.

“It’s turned out to be a very appropriate time to look at things as a whole — where things should be placed,” Dement said, adding, “We were very encouraged by what was said” at the July 28 meeting.

Committee members don’t yet have an estimate on how much it will cost to move the monument. Dement said they are meeting with Greco next week to take a look at the layout of Settlers’ Park, the other monuments and a potential location for the Tribute Memorial.

Dement said eventually, the group will begin fundraising efforts to help the monument make the move.

Anyone who would like to get involved with the effort is welcome to contact Dement at 815-436-3783.

Read more about the tribute committee’s efforts to build the Tribute Memorial.Watch video of Monday’s Plainfield Committee of the Whole meeting.

Photo: The Tribute Memorial at its current location at Plainfield Central High School. Credit: Shannon Antinori