During a moving Memorial Day service in Rambling River Park on Monday, Farmington unveiled a bronze soldier statue, the pièce de résistance of its 13-year quest to complete a veterans memorial. The…
During a moving Memorial Day service in Rambling River Park on Monday, Farmington unveiled a bronze soldier statue, the pièce de résistance of its 13-year quest to complete a veterans memorial.
The statue, designed by Brodin Studios in Kimball, Minn., stands six feet three inches tall and weighs 450 pounds. He stands in the center of the memorial, facing a large granite folded flag and salutes the names of the fifteen fallen soldiers from Farmington and the surrounding townships.
“We wanted him to be trim and fit,” explained Leon Orr, chairman of the Farmington Area Veterans Memorial committee. “We wanted him to look like those who were killed.”
The men, whose names are engraved on the gray wall, were killed in either WWI, WW2, Vietnam or Afghanistan. They were young men, most of them in their 2-s.
Orr said the statue helps give a face to the names and honors the men with his unyielding salute.
“Day or night in good weather or in bad, 365 days a year, we have a soldier saluting,” he said.
Plans for the memorial started in 2005 with Howard Miller, who died before the memorial became a reality.
In 2011 Leon Orr, Grant Beyl, David Metzger, Joseph Tullar, Ron Ersfeld and Bev Ersfeld formed a committee to see the project through. The group toured other memorials in Minnesota and Wisconsin before settling on a plan that would honor all Farmington area veterans but give special emphasis to those who gave their lives in the line of duty.
Construction of the memorial began in 2013. The dominant feature is a large granite folded flag that represents the flag given to loved ones at military funerals.
The most recent name added to the 15 is Marine Lance Corporal Dale W. Means, who died Nov. 18,2012, in Afghanistan. He was 23.
His mother, Dalelyn Means of Farmington, attended the service, becoming emotional when the statue was unveiled.
“It’s beautiful,” she said. “They worked long and hard on this. It shows a lot of respect and dignity.”
Orr said the memorial, which cost about $300,000 to build, was done with donations from fundraisers and Farmington residents. Related Articles
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The statue was unveiled during the town’s annual Memorial Day service, which featured the Farmington High School Band playing patriotic songs. While one student played “Taps” on a silver trumpet, the two flags, a U. S. flag and a POW/MIA flag, that flank the granite flag were slowly raised to honor the fallen.
Temperatures in the high nineties made things uncomfortable for those in attendance. At one point, a female band student collapsed. The Marine in full dress uniform that had raised the U. S. flag, jumped up, gently lifted her from the grass and carried her to a tent. Related Articles
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