The Sgt. Stanley Hoffman World War II memorial was rededicated under Saturday's somber sky.

The memorial reconstruction began over half a year ago when 11 men from the Lehighton United Veterans Organization took on the project.Everyone in attendance agreed that the new location and construction honored the fallen veterans listed on the original 1985 plaque.The memorial is named after Hoffman, who died in combat February 1944 in Italy, and was one of 57 local troops who never made it home."The reason we can be here today and assemble like this is because of these young men," UVO Commander K.M. "Spike" Long said.The message of the day was one of both gratitude and admiration."It stands as a beautiful tribute to those who served in wartime and times of peace," Carbon County Veteran Affairs director Henry Desrosiers said.American Legion Post 314 Commander Larry K. Heffley said, "We gather here to say thank you today."Lamont "Mike" Ebbert spoke about his familiarity with the 57 men who departed, never to return."I personally knew a lot of these young men," he said. "Back in those days if someone was killed during the war, they would send a telegraph. Unfortunately we had so many people in this area. You have to admire these people."Originally displayed across the street on the northwestern corner of the Stanley Hoffman Highway, Long pointed out the need for the new site."It's a more prominent location for the community. It gives people a chance to soak in the magnitude of the sacrifice of the 57 young men from the Lehighton area."Along with prominence, the location has its own ties to times of war. Over 70 years ago a Lehigh Valley Railroad station stood where troops arrived and departed from Carbon County."May the citizens of Lehighton be proud of it," Lehighton Mayor Tom Mase said."Look at the names on the plaque, look at those pictures, along with those faces were families," Long told the crowd.Lehighton resident Judy Harris pointed to the photo of her brother Warren H. Kistler, who never made it back from his mission."He died in Italy. He's buried in France. I was only in third grade but I remember the day the telegraph came. I had three brothers, all three in the military only two of them made it back," she said. "We had the flag with the number of people in the family in the military represented by stars on the flag. When one would die they would replace the white star with a gold one. We had two normal and one gold."The Lehighton Band played a part of each military branch's march, while the veterans of that branch were asked to stand and be honored.Carlos Teets, 81, of Lehighton stood and saluted during the Marine Corps call.Many community members donated materials and time to the reconstruction of the important memorial.Pizza Como sponsored the benches on either side of the concrete and stone structure. Mike Keller provided brick work, while Vince Williams excavated the site.