Board hears plans to build veteran memorial in Milan

Steve Marquez, left, discusses the plans for a war memorial commemerating soldiers who were killed in action during WWI,WWII, Korea, and Vietnam with, from right, Tony Mace, Raymond Savedra and Hugh Sheldrick at Lasting Memories in Milan on Tuesday afternoon. The memorial will be built on the southwest corner of Horizon and U.S. 66 if the city approves it. [Photo by Matt Hinshaw/Independent]

By Jim Maniaci
Cibola County Bureau

Above is a model for the War Memorial that is awaiting approval by the city of Milan. [Photo by Matt Hinshaw/Independent]

MILAN — An overflow crowd at the first meeting of the new Milan Village Board of Trustees heard about plans to build a second military veterans memorial in Cibola County to complement the just completed Vietnam Veterans Memorial in neighboring Grants.

A committee headed up by Cibola County Sheriff's Office Sgt. Steve Marquez will need to raise between $40,000 and $50,000 for the Cibola County-Milan Veterans Memorial on the southwest corner of Horizon Boulevard and Route 66 the main entrance into the village from Interstate 40's Exit 79.

Hugh Sheldrick of Milan's Lasting Memories Monuments presented the plans to the trustees and Mayor Tom Ortega immediately said he would get with the committee and go see the director of the New Mexico Transportation Department's Sixth District, which just happens to be down the street from the proposed site. Although the matter was listed on the agenda for action, trustees did not vote on seeking the variance for an encroachment permit to use the state's right-of-way. The site is behind the Chaco Canyon Trading Center.

In an interview, Sheldrick, Marquez, Deputy Sheriff Tony Mace and Raymond Saavedra who were heavily involved in the Vietnam memorial project in the Friendship Park on Santa Fe Avenue indicated the second memorial grew from the first one.

"Veterans from World War II and Korea kept asking me, 'What are you going to do for us?'," Sheldrick said. "So I thought, why not?"

The new memorial will feature five vertical blocks, 17 inches wide, 4 inches deep and 54 inches tall, of black Georgia granite, which will cost more than an identical imported granite. The group insisted on sticking with the American-quarried material since the idea is to honor those killed in action during the World War I, World War II, Korea and Vietnam.

Sheldrick said the group needs the names of county veterans from World War I. Through various veterans groups and individuals, the panel has accumulated what it considers a fairly accurate list from the later wars. If there is enough room, the names of other veterans can be added, but the emphasis will be on obtaining as complete a list as possible of local men and women who died fighting for America.

The new memorial will cover a small space, about 23 feet by 27 feet, and will match the trading center's color and motif with viga poles and windows between the black blocks. The group also would like to sell memorial stones to be placed vertically at the foot of the monument. New Mexico and American flags will flank the monument.

Anyone wanting to make donations can send a check to the Cibola County-Milan Veterans Memorial Fund at P.O. Box 2296, Milan, N.M., 87021. An account is being set up with Grants State Bank.

The group hopes to have the dedication on Saturday, Nov. 11; however, as Marquez points out, "It depends on how fast the donations come in. But Veterans Day would be nice for the dedication. They call Korea the forgotten war, but at the same time they are never the forgotten people. If not for these soldiers and sailors we would not have the freedoms we have. So we need some kind of a remembrance."

He said that in addition to donations and the remembrance stones, the group will have motorcycle poker runs and car shows to raise the money.

Marquez, who is not a military veteran, said, "I think very highly of our military veterans."

Mace, who served four years in the U.S. Marine Corps, from 1995-99, joined the effort and did the principal design, approaching Marquez when he learned about the proposal. Sheldrick and Saavedra are Vietnam veterans.