Justice Reid to city: `What happened to the statue?'

Illinois Appellate Court Justice Ellis Reid urged the city of Chicago "to get its act together" and better document its listing of statues given the city's missing military monuments.

Reid, who back in the 1970s lived at the Lake Point Towers across the street from Olive Park, said he remembers a statue of the late Milton Lee Olive III who was killed on Oct. 22, 1965 during a search and destroy mission in the vicinity of Phu Cuong. On that day in Black history, Olive, 18, spotted a live grenade. He grabbed the grenade, holding it Clutching it tightly to his stomach and allowing it to explode. The show of unselfish bravery saved the lives of four of his comrades, who are still alive today.

The late Mayor Daley dedicated Olive Park in memory of Milton Lee Olive who was the first African American to have received a Congressional Medal of Honor in the Vietnam War, yet the mystery of Milton Lee Olive's missing statue continues to puzzle Reid and Chicago's Veteran Affairs Director Rochelle Crump. They along with several veteran groups are demanding to know the whereabouts of the missing Vietnam Memorial Fountain that had been erected at State and Wacker prior to the massive Wacker Drive repair project, and they want the statue returned.

"It's a life-size statue dressed as a paratrooper. I remember walking many times past the statue," said Reid.

Reid said the missing statue "is too much of a loss for the Black community because it was and still can be an inspiration to many young people both in and out of the military.

"The city and the Park District should begin a thorough search to find the statue.

"I remember reading about art work that came up missing and nobody knew where it went. The City and the Park District must do a better job of accounting for its art work," Reid said.