‘Lest we forget’

Patriotism ran high at a benefit event last Friday night at the Museum of Culpeper History in support of permanent monument to the greatest generation.

With its bold “War is Hell” exhibit as the backdrop, the museum on Main Street was an apt setting for the fund-raiser in support of a sculpture to anchor the Wine Street Memorial Park in honor of local World War II and Korean War veterans.

“One thing that never loses its importance is the need to remember those who have sacrificed for us,” said Gulf War veteran Keith Price of Culpeper, chairman of the town’s Veterans Recognition Committee, the Town Council-appointed group in charge of raising funds for the estimated $125,000 project. “It brings a community together and helps define our culture.”

Various dignitaries and veterans attended the museum event, including World War II vet John Marsh Jr., former Congressman to Culpeper and retired Secretary of the Army for eight years under Ronald Reagan.

The Veterans Recognition Committee also hosted renowned sculptor Jim Brothers of Kansas, who shared his thoughts on “Homage” — his gripping single soldier statue slated for larger-than-life creation and assembly in the Wine Street Memorial Park.

Brothers, who created most of the monuments for the National D-Day Memorial in Bedford and whose sculpture of Dwight D. Eisenhower stands in the U.S. Capitol, said he first created Homage, on a smaller scale years ago. It was not a commission piece, he said, but one “that came from my heart … because I had something to say.”

An artist who reveres and has befriended many World War II-era veterans through the years, Brothers spoke with great emotion about what Homage means.

“Once you get to know these people, you know they are heroes and you become almost obsessed with saying, ‘We owe you a lot.’ I am always trying to say thank you, but feel like I can never say or do enough.”

Standing in the museum in front of a model of Homage that the veterans committee previously commissioned, Brothers pointed out that the soldier, head tilted down, does not have a shovel. The sculpted man, instead, stands before an inverted rifle with its bayonet stuck in the ground, the fallen soldier’s helmet hanging from the gun.

“There is no shovel because he’s not the man who buried him,” Brothers said. “This was not his friend and yet he comes across this and it’s like, “There but for the grace of God go I.”

The sculpture captures a sorrowful moment of reflection imagined on the vast battlefields of World War II and Korea, indicative of a military tradition that happened time and again.

Price said the statue, once built, would attract people from all over to Culpeper.

“As soon as our committee saw Homage, we knew that this was the statement we wanted to make with our monument in the park,” he said.

Former Army secretary Marsh, of Winchester, eloquently quoted Abraham Lincoln, Rudyard Kipling and Ralph Waldo Emerson in making his case in support of bringing Homage to Culpeper.

“Lincoln was a very compassionate man. In his second inaugural address, when the end of the war was apparent, Lincoln made this statement that was the theme of our veterans administration and reflects the American ethic: that we needed “to care for him who … have born the battle and for his widow and for his orphan,” Marsh said.

Too often when service men and women die, Marsh said, the family is forgotten. He signaled out Culpeper real-estate agent Sally McDevitt, vice chairman of the veterans committee, as someone who knows first-hand about this.

Her father, Maj. Thomas Howie of the Virginia National Guard, died at age 36 near Normandy as he liberated the French town of Saint-Lo during World War II. Sally was just a young girl when she lost her dad, and yet his memory survives.

So beloved by the French was Howie for his bravery and sacrifice, he earned the title, “The Major of Saint-Lo.” To this day, the folks in that town across the sea remember him, having sought out and visited with McDevitt several times in Culpeper and in France. Saint-Lo also erected a monument to Howie.

Talking softly as she prepared food in the backroom prior to the museum benefit, McDevitt championed the cause of Homage in Culpeper.

“People need to understand it’s a tribute to our freedom and the men who fought for it and the men who lost their lives fighting for it,” she said. “Over time, people tend to forget that we might not be able to do what we do today if it wasn’t for them.”

Culpeper’s World War II and Korean War veterans “fell through the cracks” in terms of a local memorial, McDevitt said. She hoped for a renewed interest in the project and the associated sacrifices “that preserved our freedoms.” Culpeper lost 41 men in World War II and two in Korea.

Homage, though under consideration for commission by a community in Kansas, does not yet exist to the 8-foot-scale for which it was intended and as it will be displayed in Culpeper. The Veterans Committee has raised about $50,000 toward the project so far, but needs to raise another $35,000 before Brothers is commissioned to sculpt the bronze figure. It’s an estimated eight to nine month job.

A granite base designed by local artist Tad Butler will support the structure and is expected to cost another $40,000. The goal of the Veterans Recognition Committee is to have the sculpture in place for dedication by Veterans Day 2010.

“This is a very important day,” said Marsh at the Nov. 6 fund-raiser.

“Mr. Brothers, I think you have carved your place in history.”

Then he quoted from Kipling’s moving poem, “Recessional,” the words really hitting home a few days before Veterans Day: “The tumult and the shouting dies – The Captains and the Kings depart – Still stands thine ancient sacrifice, an humble and contrite heart. Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet, Lest we forget – lest we forget!”

Not just a monument to the past, added Marsh, the longest-serving Army secretary in history, Homage would be “an inspiration for the future.”

Vietnam veteran Morris Foster of Culpeper, a retired U.S. Marine and member of the local VFW color guard since 1991, said he really supports the project.

“There’s no one in this area that has really watched over them,” he said of the area’s fallen World War II and Korean War vets. “The monument will show that Culpeper really cares about their own.”

Town Councilman Chris Snider, who served with the U.S. Army Reserves and led the effort for the Memorial Park on Wine Street, said there were no adequate words to describe the value of Homage. And then he offered some words.

“It’s about finally showing our gratitude to the veterans who secured America’s free place in the free world as a beacon,” Snider said. “They are remarkable, remarkable people.”