I have reviewed the VFW plans for the proposed honor wall adjacent to the flag pole in Manchester.

To understand what is planned, some nice person has put up poles and cord to represent the shape and height.

Although I understand that the VFW could have worked more closely with the port on its proposed honor wall, I support the plan.

We take much too lightly the cost of our foreign wars. We should be confronted with the cost — and a wall does confront us.

This tradition extends back in our nation’s history, where town fathers often put monuments to the fallen in the middle of the road, where you were forced to drive around them.

In October of 2006, a young man we knew died in Iraq. As a young boy, he was in my son’s Indian Guide group and my wife’s Cub Scout pack, so we watched him grow up with the other kids of the area — graduate from West Point.

Sadly, we last saw his parents at his burial in Arlington Cemetery after an IED ended his second tour in Iraq.

When I see his photo, I am reminded that my son and my nephews did not have to go to that war nor have we had to experience the deep grief that will always be with our friends.

A wall of bricks — each brick representing a life like the one described — is a strong reminder for us not to take lightly the wars we fight.

Manchester is a good place for the fallen of the area to be honored.

It is important that every time we walk or drive by the entrance to the library and port parking that we remember the fallen soldiers and their grieving parents, siblings and, in many cases, their wives and children.

A good strong, tall wall will make us remember.

RAY PARDO

Manchester