Funds for veterans memorials unused

[WakeUp]

Funds for veterans memorials unused


By ASSOCIATED PRESS

June 24, 2007
ALBUQUERQUE — Some $44,000 is available for monuments recognizing veterans of the war being waged in Iraq and Afghanistan.
But in the 17 months since the Legislature approved the funding, not a single application for the money has been received.

Terry Riley, a Vietnam-era veteran, was the driving force behind the request to the Legislature, which passed last year. The funding is to be used to purchase and install bronze sculpture memorials to veterans in public locations around the state.

What Riley envisions are 10 45-inch-tall bronze sculptures of a pair of military boots backed by an M-16 rifle with its bayonet stuck in the ground and supporting a camouflage helmet. The memorial would be a fitting tribute to those fighting today in Iraq and Afghanistan, he says.

Sculptures like those described by Riley are designed by the founder of a Baltimore, Md., company, which sells them for $4,400 each.

legislation’s wording does not require the monuments be purchased from the Maryland company, said Floyd Vasquez, a spokesman for New Mexico Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary John Garcia.

Riley hopes 10 cities will apply for the funds and build small, covered shelters to house them. The requests would be reviewed and selected by Garcia and an advisory panel, Vasquez said.

Any of the $44,000 not spent by June 30, 2010, will revert to the state’s general fund, he said.

Though he disagrees with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Riley — the son and father of veterans — said he hopes his efforts will remind the nation of the debt it owes all veterans, regardless of the popularity of the conflict in which they served.

While he is disappointed that no community has applied for the monument funding, he said he understands why. “Everybody says it’s a wonderful idea, but nobody follows up on it,” he said. “It’s not in the public consciousness.”

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