GREENFIELD — Even though the Adair County Veterans Memorial monument isn’t officially complete yet, the impact it’s making can be seen throughout the county.
Larry Riley, commander of American Legion Head-Endres Post 265, recalled recently seeing a man standing next to the monument on the south lawn of the Adair County Courthouse. The man soon became emotional looking at the names on the stone and had to bring his handkerchief out.
“It’s really a wonderful monument to the veterans of Adair County,” Riley said.
Monument
The black granite monument is dedicated to all Adair County veterans who have served in any service.
The original design of the monument consisted of a main section with an art design and four wings for veterans’ names.
Any living or deceased veteran from Adair County is eligible to have his or her name on the monument. It doesn’t matter what branch the veteran served in.
However, more than 2,900 names are going to be included in the monument. This meant two more stones with names were added to the monument.
“We waited and waited,” Riley said, “and the names kept coming in and coming in.”
Now, two additional stones are being added to the monument. Of these stones, one is covered in names and the other is partially covered. Riley said he expects these stones to be added to the monument in May.
There is the potential to add one to two more stones to the monument in the future.
Starting out
The idea for the monument started in 2009 with Durwood Purdy and the American Legion in Fontanelle. Purdy had seen other veterans’ monuments and wanted to honor the service men and women of Adair County.
A committee was soon formed and donations for the monument “came rolling in.” According to Riley, donations ranged from $5 to $10,000. Approximately $80,000 was raised and Johnson Family Funeral Home was chosen to construct the monument.
Riley, who served during the Vietnam War and later taught shop class and coached wrestling at Greenfield High School and Nodaway Valley High School, said it’s nice to see his name and so many others represented on the monument.
“A whole bunch of my students have names on there,” he said.
Originally, it was free to have a veteran’s name included on the monument. A cutoff date was set for June 2010, but when there was such a huge response, the cutoff date was extended another month.
“Getting them in alphabetical order was a gigantic task,” Riley said.
Now, if veterans would like to have their names added to the monument, it costs $100.
Design
Ray “Bubba” Sorensen, who does the Freedom Rock in rural Adair County, was chosen to design the monument’s main section.
Sorensen said he wanted to create a design that was similar to his Freedom Rock paintings, but also represented Adair County.
He came up with a sketch of the state of Iowa with Adair County pinpointed on the map by the famous image of WWII soldiers erecting an American flag at Iwo Jima.
Sorensen also incorporated an eagle waving a ribbon in its beak, which is similar to the one on the state flag, to represent Iowa as a whole.
“Each county could kind of take a page from this,” Sorensen said. “Not necessarily do something exactly like that, but find a way to honor their county’s service, because not everybody that serves gets a medal of honor or the recognition that they deserve, because there’s so many different facets of service.”
A local monument also creates an opportunity to honor the veterans who can’t go on an Honor Flight or visit Washington, D.C., he added.
A dedication for the monument will be held at a later date.
“It’s kind of nice these Adair County veterans have something they can come to and say, ‘This is for me, and this is for the brothers and sisters that I served with,’” Sorensen said.