27-05-2025
Veterans' park visitors honor the fallen
SIOUX FALLS, SD (KELO) — Picnickers and bicyclists aren't the only ones drawn to city parks on the first holiday of the summer.
Memorial Day was filled with emotion among the visitors to Veterans' Memorial Park.
Allen Johnson of Gregory, SD is visiting his daughter in Sioux Falls. It was important to him to make a stop at the Veterans' Memorial Park.
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'Something to remember the day and what it means,' Johnson said.
Johnson served as an army pay clerk in Vietnam from 1967 to 1969.
'Never saw any actual action of any kind other than watching out my tent across the bay and watching the helicopters shoot tracers into the hillside,' Johnson said.
Johnson's older brother, Ronnie, served in Vietnam at the same time. He lost his life during a body recovery mission.
'Booby trap got him. We didn't really know for sure for years, until a guy came through from Chicago moving to New Mexico that was with him and got wounded at the same time, told us that story,' Johnson said.
Johnson's thoughts are with his late brother on this Memorial Day.
'I miss him. I think about him. He's buried out at the cemetery by Gregory there. I go out several times a year, just to stop by,' Johnson said.
Jim Dyer of Sioux Falls also paid a Memorial Day visit to the park. He served in the South Dakota Air National Guard from 1978 to 1982.
'I was a security police officer in the air guard. So, mine was during peacetime, so I didn't have anything exciting in my life. But it was fun to serve,' Dyer said.
Military service also runs in Dyer's family.
'My brother, he was in the Marines for 8-9 years. He also served in the air guards for several years and he did a tour overseas in Iraq,' Dyer said.
Dyer is here to pay tribute to brother Chris, who's life was also cut short.
'When he was in the Marines, he spent time down in Camp Lejeune. He got that tainted water and he ended up dying of cancer. Once he was diagnosed, he got about five extra years,' Dyer said.
So many of the people who come to this park have ties to the military. And they're grateful that there's a place in the heart of Sioux Falls to pay their respects to those who have served their country.
'Everybody should be visiting a military site. Everybody, whether you served, or not, just to pay those respects for those who did and those who never came home,' Dyer said.
Veterans' Memorial Park is located near Terrace Park in north-central Sioux Falls. It's open daily from 5 a.m. to 10 p.m.
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