City of Fort Worth
A rendering of the proposed Vietnam War Memorial.
More than 223 servicemen from Tarrant County were killed during the Vietnam War.
Robert Law, then 24, a graduate of Technical High School and had gone to night school at TCU before joining the Army, was the 140th.
While on patrol during a reconnaissance mission, Law and his fellow soldiers came under attack. When a live incoming grenade landed in the middle of his group, Law threw himself on it to try to save the others.
Law was returned to his hometown for burial at Mount Olivet Cemetery. He was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor by President Nixon in 1970. Law’s mother and father, and his brother were invited to the East Room of the White House to accept on his behalf.
On Tuesday, the Fort Worth City Council approved spending up to $200,000 to help build a memorial to Law and the hundreds of others who perished over there at the city-owned Veterans Memorial Park on the bricks on Camp Bowie Boulevard.
The council, on staff’s recommendation, is expected to approve.
The city and the Tarrant County Vietnam War Memorial Foundation are planning to dedicate the $355,000 memorial on Veterans Day 2026, according to the city. There is still money to raise. If you’re interested, go here.
The memorial will feature artwork by local artist Michael Pavlovsky, whose work is displayed across Fort Worth and Dallas. His work has been included in more than 90 juried and invitational exhibitions. Perhaps his most notable work was a commission to create a sculpture to serve as the central metaphor for the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, Tennessee. Movement to Overcome was in place for the opening of that museum in 1991, constructed on the site of the Lorraine Motel, site of Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination.
The half-acre Veterans Memorial Park, dedicated in 1923 — a year or so after Fort Worth annexed Arlington Heights — has served as a war memorial site since October 1950. That year during the 25th annual reunion of the acclaimed 36th Division, which served with distinction in World War I and again in the next one, a red granite memorial was dedicated to all those men who trained at Camp Bowie and went off to Europe in 1917.
In 1987, a memorial to World War II veterans of the 36th Division was added to the east end of the park near Washington Street. Duty is a bronze sculpture depicting two soldiers, one of whom is supporting a wounded comrade, designed by Barvo Walker.
City of Fort Worth
Capt. George Markos, an Army helicopter pilot, was the first Tarrant County casualty in Vietnam, according to the National Archives, killed in action over Pleiku Province, South Vietnam. He died on Feb. 7, 1965, at age 25.
The son of a retired Air Force colonel, Markos, a graduate of Arlington Heights and TCU, had served 11 months in Vietnam and logged more than 800 hours of combat time in his helicopter, according to family. He left behind a wife and 17-month-old daughter.
“My wife feels as though half of her is dead,” said the elder Markos to the Star-Telegram. “As far as she is concerned the war is over.”
Markos’ gunner was killed six weeks before his own death. In a letter to his wife, Markos wrote: “I wish I could have died for that boy, or at least suffered his terrible pain for him.”
Vietnam, Markos wrote, was “a dirty, cruel war.”
“In his heart, he felt a responsibility for all men and had a love for all men,” a priest from St. Demetrios Church, Fr. Papademetriou, who knew Markos at TCU, said in a eulogy. “He always was full of life and had a smile for every man. George loved his wife and family and he also loved God.”
A year before, Markos had been awarded the Air Medal for meritorious achievement, as well as the Purple Heart. He is buried in Greenwood Cemetery.
George Markos Park was dedicated by the city of Fort Worth in 1973.
Marshall Collins of Arlington was last casualty from Tarrant County.
The 31-year-old was a lieutenant commander in the U.S. Navy. He was killed on Aug. 12, 1972, when the transport aircraft he was aboard was shot down in Ba Xugen Province, South Vietnam. he was awarded the Purple Heart, Bronze Star, National Defense, Vietnam Service, and Vietnam Campaign Medals.
He is buried in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, Honolulu, Hawaii.
PUBLIC AND CORPORATE COMMISSIONS OF MICHAEL PAVLOVSKY
2019 Saint Francis, Saint Patrick Parrish, Dallas.
Tabernacle, Saint John's Anglican Church, Fort Worth.
2018 Lion Fountain Recreation, Chandor Gardens, Weatherford.
2015 Healing Piece, Moncrief Cancer Institute, Fort Worth.
2014 The Brave Ones, Fire Station No.8, Frisco.
2013 Monument to Dietrich Rulfs, Friends of Historic Nacogdoches, Nacogdoches.
Near East Side Urban Village Public Art Project, Fort Worth.
2012 Flamma Libertatis, Fairview Veterans' Park, Fairview.
2011 Dance of Life, Joan Katz Breast Center, Baylor-All Saints Hospital, Fort Worth.
Prairie Wind, C. P. Hadley Park, Public Art Project, Fort Worth.
Grape Gates at Chandor Gardens (restoration project), Weatherford.
2009 Chinese Lions at Chandor Gardens (restoration project), Weatherford.
Promise Fulfilled, YWCA, Fort Worth.
Three Muses of Frisco, City of Frisco, Frisco.
2008 Living Water, University Christian Church, Fort Worth.
2007 Hope Renewed, Samaritan House, Fort Worth.
2003 Lehadlik ner, Hebrew Educational Alliance, Denver.
2002 Julius Schepps Memorial, Dallas.
2001 Birth of Love, Fort Worth Botanic Garden, Fort Worth.
Stations of the Cross, St. John’s Episcopal Church, Fort Worth.
2000 Compassion and Perseverance, Texas Sculpture Garden, Hall Office Park, Frisco.
Coming Home, Grapevine Veterans Memorial, Grapevine.
1996 Column of Change, American Enterprise Institute Art Park, Des Moines, Iowa.
1994 Arch, Circle, Column, Middle Five Mile Creek Public Art Project, Dallas.
1992 Memorial Wall, Tarrant County College, Northwest Campus Library, Fort Worth.
1991 Movement to Overcome, National Civil Rights Museum, Memphis, Tennessee.