Installation of Engraved Bricks to Honor Veterans at the Shoreline Veterans Recognition Plaza

Family and Friends gather to witness engraved brick installation for their veteran

Story by Doug Cerretti

Photos by Doug Cerretti except as noted

The Shoreline Veterans Association hosted the installation of engraved bricks to honor veterans at the Shoreline Veterans Recognition Plaza, May 23, 2026. 

Top (L-R) Martin Agustin, US Marines; Frank Brennan, US Air Force
Bottom (L-R) Raymond Illman, US Army; Willie Jackson, US Army

Over 30 family and friends including three dogs witnessed the installation of 11 engraved bricks to honor their veteran. 

Dwight Stevens, Bob Grasmick, and Frank Moll
Photo by Jerry Pickard

The program started with a brief history of the Plaza where in 2010, veterans Bob Grasmick ran across Frank Moll at the Ridgecrest ice cream social and thought that Shoreline should do something to honor veterans.

They brought in Dwight Stevens and the three of them were the driving force (with the help of many others) that resulted in the dedication of the Plaza May 16, 2016. 

Top (L-R) Cameron Krall, US Marines; Adam Peddicord, US Army

Bottom: (L-R) Walter Scudder, US Army; W A Vanderploeg, US Army

The families were then told that they are now part owners of the Plaza and as such they should not only visit the Plaza to honor their veteran but they should take time to walk among the bricks and imagine the stores behind the names on the bricks. 

They would find out, If the Bricks Could Talk, that two months after turning 20-years-old, Dwight Stevens piloted a B-17 for the first of his 33 missions over Europe. When he finished, he was the ripe old age of 20 ½, not legally able to buy a beer in the States. 

They would also learn that Dwight’s ancestor J. Dwight Stevens served in the Union Army during the Civil War. 

If Ralph Henry Keil’s brick could talk, it would tell you that 12 minutes after WW2 started, he perished when the USS Oklahoma was struck December 7, 1941. 

You would learn from John Hosey’s brick that he was not forthcoming with his age when he enlisted in the Army in 1951. After boot camp and earning his parachute wings, he joined the 82nd Airborne. John was 16-years-old. The brick would also tell you that he became one of the most decorated helicopter pilots in Vietnam.

George Forbes with his brick

There was one brick, to be installed, that did not have to speak as WW2 veteran George Forbes was in attendance. He would tell you that he was commissioned a Junior Officer in the British Merchant Navy at age 16 in 1941 while a student at Merchant Navy College. Service on convoys in the British Merchant Navy was considered suicide and the British Admiralty needed seaman. 

Avis Schwab’s brick would tell you that in 1967 after serving two years in the Peace Corps, she volunteered to go to Vietnam at the height of the war to support our boys in a Red Cross volunteer program officially known as Supplemental Recreational Activities Overseas but affectionately called Donut Dollys. 

Navy veteran and brick
mason Derek Tomlinson

These are just a few bricks with stories to tell If the Bricks Could Talk. Afterwards Navy veteran and brick mason Derek Thomlinson ( SJ Construction and Masonry, Sulton, WA) proceeded to install the bricks for the assembled family and friends.

The Shoreline Veterans Association is a standing committee of The Starr Sutherland, Jr. Post 227 of The American Legion in Shoreline, WA. 

The Plaza is located at Shoreline City Hall 17500 Midvale Ave N, Shoreline, WA 98133. 

Engraved bricks to honor Veterans past, present and future at Shoreline Veterans Recognition Plaza can be obtained for a $100 donation. A single brick can be engraved with three lines of text with up to 16 characters in each line. 

Shoreline Veterans Recognition Plaza
located at Shoreline City Hall.

You can choose to have your brick installed at the Plaza or delivered to you to display at home or give as gift. 

Bricks can be acquired online from The American Legion Post 227’s webpage or you can print out the order form, fill it out and mail it (Shoreline Veterans Association, PO Box 55193, Shoreline, WA 98155 with your check or credit card number. The donations are tax deductible. 

Questions: email svaadmin@shorelinepost227.com or call 206-546-9603 and leave a message.

Links to previous articles about the Shoreline Veterans Recognition Plaza

The Origin of Heroes Café Shoreline