Being
one of the representatives for The
Netherlands in the 101st Airborne
Division (Air Assault) Association's
Monuments & Memorials Directory
Committee, I advised not
to include the fountain on the
corner of Boslaan and Heistraat in
Son, The Netherlands. I assumed that
the 101 design in the concrete in
two of the six sides of this
fountain was just a coincidence. My
recent visit to Fort Campbell in
Kentucky proved me wrong.
The 101st division historian, CPT
James Page, showed me the Brigadier
General Don F. Pratt Museum archives
and in one the drawers we found a
miniature version of the fountain,
called a 'planter' in the museum's
records.
Miniature ('planter') design of
the fountain in the
Brigadier General Don F. Pratt
Museum Archive in Fort Campbell,
Kentucky
(click to enlarge)
Documents about the miniature
fountain
The design seems to have been made
by a Dutchman named Theo van Amstel
in the late 1960's probably for the
commemoration of the 25th
Anniversary of Operation "Market
Garden" in 1969.
(click to enlarge)
The fountain
in Son, The Netherlands
This is an impression of the
fountain. Two of the six sides have
impressions in the concrete basin in
the shape of the figures 101 and two
sides feature a stylized sun, which
represents the old Dutch spelling of
the name of the town Son; officially
named Municipality of Son & Breugel.
This town's
heraldry also features the sun.
(click to enlarge)
This report is to prove that the
fountain on the corner of Boslan and
Heistraat in Son in the Netherland
is indeed a monument to the 101st
Airborne Division dedicated to its
liberation by this unit on the 17th
of September 1944.
