Beth Masiado has been on a many-year mission to remember those Bethlehem area young people who served in Vietnam and didn’t come home alive. There are 35 who didn’t, and they are memorialized on Church Street in front of Bethlehem’s City Hall with their names listed on a monument to their ultimate sacrifice.

Masiado spearheaded fundraising for that memorial, which was dedicated in May 2019. Now excess funds have been used to create a plaque commemorating 30 of those who died and who at one time had been students at Liberty HS.

On March 2, Masiado presented that plaque to Liberty Principal Dr. Harrison Bailey III in his office. Bailey was raised in a military family and envisions the $1,500 memorial plaque being installed near the entrance to the aptly named Memorial Gymnasium “where a lot of people come in and out.”

Referring to Masiado, Bailey said, “She’s been a flame for this project.”

Masiado chose to do a plaque for installation at Liberty “because they took the biggest hit” in Vietnam War deaths. She is also a graduate of Liberty and her own brother served in Vietnam.

Masiado said there’s one more piece to her efforts, a book. In it, all 35 who died in the war will be featured with a profile for each. She notes that “the circle will be complete” when the book proceeds are given to the Lehigh Valley Gold Star Mothers.