'JUST A LITTLE PLACE ...' VETERAN WORKS ADVOCATING LOCAL MEMORIAL.

Byline: Susan Abram Staff Writer

CANYON COUNTRY - The young soldiers moved through the sandy trenches in darkness.

The Germans were watching from high above the Anzio beachhead, a 12-mile stretch of sand in Italy, and now and then, they would shoot a flare to catch sight of the Americans. Any move, and the night sky and ground would explode under a barrage of fire from the German artillery.

Harry Gratz was 23 when he was drafted in the U.S. Army. He had tried to get out of it as a conscientious objector. But right after Pearl Harbor, when America itself was attacked, the draft board came down hard and gave Gratz a choice: him or his older brother.

Gratz, 86, still fights World War II in his mind. It is a war of remembering and forgetting. The battles of that time, the bouts of malaria and yellow jaundice he suffered sit wedged on his mind like a cold, jagged piece of metal. He keeps those memories buried. To remember is pain, he said, like the shrapnel still lodged in his knee, positioned in such a way so that if doctors try to dislodge it, they may have to amputate his leg.

But forgetting hurts, too, said Gratz, a Canyon Country resident who, in between caring for his 79-year-old wife, Blossom, a victim of Alzheimer's disease, writes dozens of letters each month to just about anyone who will listen.

A veteran's memorial, he writes in longhand on yellow-lined paper to city and county and state and national officials. Santa Clarita needs a place of remembrance, too.

``It doesn't have to be an elaborate place, because elaborate places attract vandals,'' he said recently, ``just a little place where the veterans can come and say a prayer. The veterans here are forgotten. If it wasn't for the veterans, we'd all be wearing German armbands.''

Many times he receives letters back, which he carefully keeps in the original envelopes. Most just tell him to be patient.

Plans for the Veterans Memorial Plaza, to be erected on a triangular half-acre lot bounded by Newhall Avenue and Market and Walnut streets, were recently placed on hold due to budget cuts. City Parks and Recreation director Rick Gould said that, despite the postponement, his department would continue to forge ahead with planning documents to be prepared in case funding becomes available.

Additional funding for the park may come from a proposed beautification project that was turned down by residents along Whites Canyon Road. City officials are expected to consider options for the plaza before approving the budget on June 8.

Local veterans have tried for more than 10 years, through various efforts, to build the plaza. Officials have estimated the cost at $500,000.

Joe Domke, a veteran who fought in Vietnam and Laos, is the treasurer of the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 6110 Mint Canyon. He says the issue has been an emotional one in the Santa Clarita Valley.

More than 200 members belong to the post, he said.

Domke said he feels for the World War II Veterans, who, on Saturday, were honored with the first national World War II Memorial dedication in Washington, D.C. The memorial features towering arches and pillars rising from the ground in a circle and wall of the names of the 16 million who served in the armed forces during the war and the more than 400,000 who died.

``They built the wall for the Vietnam solders and the Korean War, but the guys from World War II got left out, and I think they deserve one,'' Domke said.

Gratz, whose name is included on the national memorial, said he feels vindicated in a way but still longs for a local place.

``It's like a disease in my blood,'' he said of the effort to build a local memorial. ``I call it a disease because it occupies my mind all the time.''

Susan Abram, [phone]

susan.abram(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

3 photos

Photo:

(1 -- 2; 1 color only) Harry Gratz, above, of Canyon Country, holds one of the Purple Hearts he received in World War II. Gratz, left, is enlisting help to build a memorial for veterans in Santa Clarita.

(3 -- color) - Harry Gratz, served in World War II

David Crane/Staff Photographer