Veterans offended by name change of Gaston Memorial

GASTONIA, N.C. — Veterans are offended by the proposed name change for Gaston Memorial Hospital.

Last week, the hospital introduced its new slogan "Cheat death" for similar reasons, and many people found it offensive.

Veterans will tell commissioners Thursday night they earned the right to have the hospital named Gaston Memorial.

They said in 1946, the hospital couldn't handle the needs of veterans returning from World War II, so veterans went door-to-door and raised a million dollars for hospital improvements.

Veteran Tony Sherrill has a copy of the plaque that used to be at Gaston Memorial Hospital.

It bears the names of local soldiers who died in battle, and it was given in honor of veterans who raised money for the hospital.

"Two of my high schoolmates are on that plaque," Sherrill said.

Hospital officials recently removed the word "memorial" from the plaque.

"To me, it's disrespectful to change the name when you are acknowledging the death of those who died in World War II," Sherrill said.

Sherrill put out a call to all veterans in the county to come speak to commissioners and ask them to force hospital officials to give up the name Caromont Regional and return to Gaston Memorial.

"We'll pretty much request that they take full control of the hospital, as we seem to think they should have, and get that name changed back," Sherrill said.

Caromont's director of government relations said they didn't mean to upset veterans.

"We apologize for that to our veterans in Gaston County," said Alex Mullineaux with Carolmont.

He said the new name was designed to give the hospital a regional appeal and it will remain, but he still wants to meet with veterans "to discuss how we can honor the veterans that built this hospital," he said.

Commissioners said they knew about the name change before the announcement, but they said hospital officials promised to find a way to honor veterans.

WSOC