Jonesboro, AR – JonesboroRightNow.com – As the final Monday of May arrives, Jonesboro shifts into a familiar holiday rhythm.

Barbecue smoke drifts across neighborhoods, local pools open for the season, and families gear up for the unofficial start of summer. But beneath the celebratory air lies a solemn reality—one that is etched permanently into the red brick and granite of downtown Jonesboro.

Memorial Day isn’t just a national holiday; for Craighead County, it is also a deeply local story.

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The Doughboy and the 1,385

To truly understand the county’s history of sacrifice, one needs only to stand on the steps of the Craighead County Courthouse at the intersection of Main Street and Washington Avenue. On the northeast corner, guarding the plaza, is the iconic Doughboy statue, a monument honoring the casualties and veterans of World War I.

Beside it stands a sobering reminder: a marker dedicated to the 1,385 sons of Craighead County who left the safety of Northeast Arkansas to defend freedom in the four corners of the earth during the Great War. For many of those young men, the train ride out of Jonesboro would be their last.

From Crowley’s Ridge to Dutch Harbor

The community’s legacy of bravery stretched even further during the dark days of World War II. Jonesboro was home to Battery C of the 206th Coast Artillery (Anti-Aircraft). When the United States entered the war, these local National Guard troops were sent to the harsh, freezing conditions of Dutch Harbor, AK.

In June 1942, when Japanese forces launched a surprise aerial assault on the Aleutian Islands, the men of Battery C didn’t flinch. Armed with anti-aircraft guns, they fought through the bombing raids, marking a critical and often overlooked chapter of American wartime history. A dedicated memorial marker on the courthouse lawn ensures their grit is never forgotten by future generations.

A Living Plaza of Remembrance

Today, that same courthouse plaza serves as a living tapestry of gratitude, preserved faithfully by the Craighead County Veterans Monument Foundation. Anyone walking across the plaza needs only to look down to see the hundreds of personalized memorial bricks.

While Veterans Day in November celebrates all who wore the uniform and Armed Forces Day recognizes those currently serving, Memorial Day belongs exclusively to those who never made it back to civilian life. It belongs to the Craighead County service members who left the farmland, the classrooms of Arkansas State, and the businesses of Main Street, trading them for battlefields an ocean away.

How to Observe Locally

If you want to move beyond the backyard barbecues and truly connect with the spirit of the day this Monday, here are a few ways to honor our fallen neighbors:

• Visit the Courthouse Plaza: Take five minutes to walk the grounds at 511 S. Main St. Read the names on the bricks and pause at the Flames of Freedom monument.
• Observe the National Moment of Remembrance: At 3 p.m. local time, pause for one minute of silence to reflect on the lives lost in service to the country.
• Teach the Next Generation: If you have kids or grandkids, take them downtown. Show them the Doughboy statue and explain that the freedoms we enjoy in Jonesboro today were paid for by the people who came before us.

This Memorial Day, as we enjoy the peace of our vibrant community, let us resolve to keep their memories alive. They gave the ultimate sacrifice so that we could live in a free Northeast Arkansas. We owe them nothing less than our remembrance.

To learn more about the Craighead County Veterans Monument Foundation, visit its website or Facebook page. Commemorative Veteran Bricks are available through the Foundation by filling out an order form.

Correction: The monument in Downtown Jonesboro is modeled after a statue entitled “Over the Top” by Chicago artist John Paulding. A previous version of this article referred to the statue as “The Spirit of the American Doughboy,” which is a similar statue originally created by E.M. Viquesney.

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