Local Army veteran helped lead efforts to build McAllen war memorial

Pushing against the wind and under threat of rain, 91-year-old retired U.S. Army Col. Frank Plummer strolled along the Veteran’s War Memorial of Texas in McAllen, a project he worked on for over 20 years.

Pushing against the wind and under threat of rain, 91-year-old retired U.S. Army Col. Frank Plummer strolled along the Veteran’s War Memorial of Texas in McAllen, a project he worked on for over 20 years.

Plummer, president of the Veterans War Memorial Foundation of Texas, led the efforts to construct the memorial after realizing how many people from the Rio Grande Valley fought in the U.S. wars.

“Almost every household has family that’s served in the military,” he said. “One of the most patriotic places I’ve ever been.”

The center focus of the memorial is the 105-foot-tall American Spire of Honor. Around and behind the spire are 38 granite panels that list soldiers that have died or detail the history of a particular war.

“This was really built on the concept of an outdoor school,” he said. “Everything has a story.”

Plummer wants to ensure the stories of the wars and the soldiers who fought in them continue to be told to newer generations. He himself knows the impact of learning about veterans can have on a young person.

When he was a child growing up in Oklahoma, he attended a Veteran’s Day parade which featured veteran confederate soldiers as well as veterans of World War I.

As he and the other students held American flags and sang songs, he was inspired by the support from the entire town which had completely shut down for the holiday. Over the years he learned more about being a soldier and joined the army when he was 17.

He became a paratrooper and served for 32 years, between 1943 and 1975, in World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. While still in the army, based in Kentucky, friends who had traveled to South Texas told him about citrus land that was being sold here.

He and his wife Kathleen came down and bought five acres of land. They returned to Kentucky until they began to think about where they would like to settle once he retired from the army. They both said they wanted to live in McAllen.

“We really liked the family life,” he said. “And it was warm.”

So in 1975, he and his wife loaded their three children and their small dogs into their trailer and drove down.

Three days later he began working as a real estate broker until around 1999 when he began to focus on the memorial full-time.

The city donated the land in 1988 and the foundation worked since then to make the memorial a reality with the help of donations.

Plummer said the stories told on the panels were authentic, not meant to aggrandize war but simply to educate.

“We not trying to preach up here at all,” he said.

He stressed the importance of passing down history to future generations and not allowing those stories to be lost.

“If they don’t learn from the schools or anywhere else … we have a good chance of losing what we have today,” Plummer said. “Patriotism is not inherited, it’s learned.”