from the Los Angeles Daily News
He took dying GI's entreaty
By Dennis McCarthy
Columnist
They call him Mr. Memorial around Chatsworth High School -- the science teacher who made a promise to a dying GI in Vietnam 33 years ago that he refuses to forget.
Two simple words whispered into the ear of young Army medic Brian Rooney as he leaned over the mortally wounded soldier, trying to read the name on his dog tags.
"Remember me," the kid whispered into Rooney's ear.
And that's what the science teacher at Chatsworth High has done -- for this young GI, and every soldier, sailor, airman, and Marine who has given his life for this country.
Done it to the point of near financial ruin.
"He's used up most of his retirement money, over $200,000, on this mission, and now there's not even money for stamps and paper," says Rooney's friend and fellow teacher, Sheldon Fried.
Stamps and paper to write and fax every city and town in this country to catalog every veterans' memorial. And to pay his respects at many of them.
From the Revolutionary War to the present -- cataloging 8,600 memorials so far in 50 states. Remembering them for the rest of us.
"My mission is to bring humanity to every one of them," Rooney said.
It started almost nine years ago as a project of respect, and quickly turned into an obsession. Rooney wanted to make sure every veterans memorial in California was being cared for.
What he found was that no one knew for sure how many or where they are because there was no list of the memorials in the state -- or the country, for that matter.
"I got mad," he said Thursday. "It was ridiculous that we didn't know where our memorials were. So I decided to write to every city in the state, asking if they had one."
That's when Rooney learned there were 1,200 municipalities just in California. He sent the mayor of each one a letter.
"Boy, did I open a Pandora's box," he said. "Over the course of six years, I mailed out more than 35,000 letters to the mayors of every municipality in America -- all 50 states.
His wife, Charisse, helped him stuff the envelopes, while his kids licked the stamps. Dinners in the Rooney house most nights were eaten with one hand, using the other to open mail.
"My fax machine was going night and day with responses. It started as a noble effort to create basically a phone book of memorials. But as the faxes rolled in, a disturbing trend emerged.
"People were saying, we used to have a memorial but it was moved, and they didn't know where it was anymore," said Rooney, 53. "Or they'd say it was torn down or had been vandalized.
"That's when I began to realize no one was championing our memorials, protecting them."
Rooney spent more of his retirement money to start the nonprofit organization RVETS -- Remembering Veterans Who Earned Their Stripes.
"Not the stripes on their sleeves," he says. "The stripes on their coffins."
His efforts soon got the notice and appreciation of politicians and veterans' groups. In Sacramento, then-state Sen. Adam Schiff sponsored legislation to establish a registry of veterans' memorials for California.
"Many had fallen into disrepair and a lot of the communities didn't even know they had one," said Schiff, now a U.S. congressman.
On the national level, U.S. Rep. David Dreier, R-Glendora, and Schiff introduced a bipartisan bill providing federal support for a national registry of veterans memorials. It has yet to come to a vote.
"Without the work of Mr. Rooney, this database would not have come to my attention," Dreier said in introducing the bill. "His efforts have shown the effectiveness and importance of commemorating our nation's heroes."
What Rooney has accomplished really is extraordinary, says Bill Lyte, business development manager of Tetra Tech, a Pasadena-based engineering and environmental company that helped Rooney contact officials in Washington, D.C.
"Brian contacted 35,000 cities, all on his own nickel," Lyte said. "I'd say that was dedication."
What he'd like to do now, Rooney says, is start a grass-roots movement to tell the personal story of every name on every memorial. But he realizes that would take forever.
"My heart is with the hometown memorial -- the kid who delivered the newspaper, the boy next door or up the block," Rooney says.
One of his favorite stories is about a Boy Scout from Ohio who was working on his Eagle Scout badge in the early '90s. He found that during the last week of World War I, four young men who lived on the same block in his hometown were killed.
"The boy brought it to the attention of the town, and a memorial was built in the memory of the four young men," Rooney said. "To me, that's the all-American story."
One monument he has not visited -- and probably never will -- is the Vietnam Memorial in Washington. That one hits too close to home.
"I know I'd come undone seeing all those names," says Rooney, the former young Army medic who refuses to forget the promise he made to a dying GI 33 years ago.
For more information on RVETS, contact Rooney at 12061 Shadow Glen Lane, Northridge, CA 91326; or e-mail him at
[email protected] .