Members of the Rossville Exchange Club vow to help with replacing the Veterans Monument that was destroyed by a teenage driver who crashed into it while fleeing police last week.

“The city is going to want to put it back, and we would be involved in helping in any way we can,” said Betty Jo Campbell.

The city’s 40-year-old Vietnam War memorial was extensively damaged when it was struck June 22 by a stolen truck carrying two teenagers who were fleeing police.

Mrs. Campbell and her husband Ray are longtime members of the Rossville Exchange Club, which was involved in erecting the monument in 1968 after a local man, “Little Boy” Patrick, was killed in Vietnam.

Marion “Little Boy” Elijah Patrick was a member of a well known Rossville family and his late father was a Rossville police officer. He was known as “Little Boy,” all of his life, said his sister, Margaret Anne Cox.

“When he was born in 1949, he weighed two pounds and seven ounces,” Mrs. Cox said. “He stayed in a hospital for three months and Dr. Stewart P. Smith built an incubator out of an orange crate, a plate glass and a 75-watt bulb so my parents could take him home. The nurses nicknamed him “Little Boy.”

Mr. Patrick enlisted in the Marines after his parents signed for him to do so early, because he wanted to join with a friend, the sister said. He told his parents he would go when he was old enough, but he would go alone, so they signed, Mrs. Cox said.

“The recruiter told us that since he was so young he wouldn’t go overseas,” she said. “But, he went in February and he was killed May 2, 1967. He would have been 19 in June.”

Rossville Mayor Johnny Baker said the city will have to see if there is any insurance that will pay for the monument. If not, the city will support fundraisers and accept donations, he said.

“We have one estimate of $25,000 to replace it,” Mayor Baker said. “It was made out of granite, and we want to replace it with granite. That’s expensive.”

The teenage driver who fled from police after allegedly being spotted in a known illegal drug sales area, was on Monday sentenced to 60 days in Georgia boot camp, the mayor said.

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