Honoring local soldiers for their sacrifice
<p>Kerri Thoreson, right, talks with Heather Callahan, president of the Fraternal Order of Eagles, Coeur d'Alene Auxiliary #486, far left, and Barbara Smalley, vice president of the organization, about the names on the existing Killed in Action monument Tuesday at the Ronald D. Rankin Veterans Memorial Plaza between the Kootenai County Courthouse and the county administration building in Coeur d'Alene. The Eagles made a donation of $500 to be used towards a new monument dedicated to local soldiers killed in action in Iraq.</p>
Editor's note: Send your donation to:
Veterans Memorial Fund
c/o County Commissioners
P.O. Box 9000
Coeur d'Alene, ID. 83816
COEUR d'ALENE - A new memorial honoring the sacrifice of those who died on the battlefield during the War on Terror in Iraq and Afghanistan will be added to the Ronald D. Rankin Veterans Memorial Plaza this year.
In 1998 an 8-foot tall, black granite Killed in Action monument was placed in the plaza at the Kootenai County Courthouse, and bears the names of the local soldiers who died in the Spanish American War, World War I, World War II, Korea and Vietnam.
The new Killed in Action monument will go next to the existing piece, and be made of black granite with a life-size cast bronze of the iconic Battlefield Cross; a soldier's boots, weapon and helmet. Among the names of local heroes to be carved into the granite will be Nick Newby and Nate Byers. The soldiers were serving with the 145th Brigade Support Battalion, 116th Cavalry of the Idaho Army National Guard out of Post Falls when they were killed by a roadside bomb in Baghdad, Iraq on July 7, 2011.
Donations for the new memorial are sought. Raising an additional $5,000 will be necessary to complete the project, tentatively scheduled to be dedicated in a public ceremony in September.
Info: Kerri Thoreson at 651-7343 or rkthor52@aol.com.