Publish Date: October 1, 2007 Permanent Link (click on permanent link for photos as well as text)
A memorial to Texas troops killed in Iraq – 367 tombstones (the number of Texas military persons killed in Iraq was 349 in mid- September) to be installed four miles east of Alpine on private ranchland fronting Highway 90 – is being planned by the Big Bend chapter of the national organization Veterans for Peace.
Named after Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia, the installation, to be known as Arlington Southwest, will resemble a military cemetery and will be formally dedicated on Veterans Day, November 11. Additional tombstones will be added if Texas men and women die in the Iraq war.
Veterans’ groups in other regions have erected similar tributes in Santa Monica, California (Arlington West); Cape Cod National Seashore, Massachusetts (Arlington East); Seattle, Washington (Arlington Northwest); Duluth, Minnesota (Arlington North); Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (Arlington North at the Liberty Bell); and Miami, Florida (Arlington Miami).
The purpose of the Arlington Memorials is, according to the national Veterans for Peace organization, “to make the consequences of war real, and to allow people to express their grief, respect and thoughts.”
Brian Kokernot, the Arlington Southwest site landowner, added his hope that “this type of memorial would enhance the possibility of peace for all our children and grandchildren.”
The several Arlingtons are primarily in honor of fallen U.S. service members, the VFP said, but they are also intended, in accordance with the group’s mission, “to increase the public awareness of the cost of war and to seek justice for veterans and victims of war.”
Shoes, photographs, and other appropriate images and symbols accompany the Arlington memorials in remembrance of the Iraqi and other civilian deaths. Artist Tom Curry, Vietnam veteran, and Alpine architect Mark Battista are co-designers of the memorial and the white-painted papercrete tombstones. The two-acre artwork, they said, “honors our fallen Texas soldiers.”
Joe Goldman, a Korean War veteran and another member of the local VFP group, stressed that Arlington Southwest is not a partisan effort, and that it is meant to save the lives of our troops by creating for the civilian public a graphic image of the real cost of the Iraq occupation.
Clarence Russeau, a Gulf War veteran, said he sees the memorial as a way of supporting U.S. troops without supporting administration foreign policy.
Paul Schaefer, a Vietnam veteran, noted that “The war in Iraq was declared an illegal act by the United Nations’ president. Support of our troops requires bringing them home safely from their illegal assignment.”
On Wednesday, Sept. 19, dedicated members of Veterans for Peace gathered in northwest Alpine, at Alan King’s, to work on preparing papercrete tombstones for the installation planned for a site 4 miles east of Alpine along Highway 90, on a ranch owned by Brian Kokernot. While work parties to prepare the tombstones continue, weather permitting, the next steps towards creating the memorial include weed-eating, measuring and marking tombstone placement, and installing an electric fence, “so cows won’t eat our tombstones,” said Eve Trook.
