The U.S. military remains involved in Iraq and Afghanistan, but Tennessee officials are already preparing to honor the men and women who have served in the conflicts in those countries with a monument near the state Capitol.
The State Building Commission is slated to vote Thursday on a plan to build a memorial to veterans of the first Gulf War, the Iraq War and the Afghanistan War.
The Tennessee Department of Veterans Services is putting together the project. Deputy Commissioner Mark Breece, who served in the Middle East himself during a 33-year Army career, says there’s no need to delay.
“As more troops are returning home, do we wait until someone decides five, 10 years from now to recognize their sacrifice, or do we go ahead and step up and do it now?” he asks. “We decided we need to do it now.”
Nearly 167,000 Tennesseans have served in the Middle East and Afghanistan since 1990, and 158 have died. This is not the first time the state has proposed building a monument to those veterans.
A Gulf War monument was first proposed nearly a quarter century ago, not long after the shooting stopped in Iraq and Kuwait. Private donors gave the state more than $30,000, but that money sat untouched for a decade, Breece says.
Tennessee officials decided to restart work a couple of years ago and to expand the monument’s scope to include the Global War on Terrorism. The State Capitol Commission approved a site on the northeast corner of War Memorial Plaza, and this year, Gov. Bill Haslam’s administration approved spending up to $190,000 on the monument.
“We feel comfortable that we can take the allotted money that we have and build a beautiful monument recognizing the sacrifice of all those troops.”
State officials plan to begin soliciting designs within the next few weeks for a monument that would honor everyone who has served in Iraq and Afghanistan over the past two decades.
They hope to unveil the monument within the next 18 months.
On Air - 90.3 WPLN-FM