Flag Day 2013 from Dubuque's New Veterans Memorial

Happy Flag Day 2013. Dubuque, Iowa's new Veterans Memorial was dedicated this spring. The memorial is located near the ice arena along Highways 151/61 on City Island, near the Mississippi River. A month ago the winds blew fast while snapping this brand new flag.

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Delmar's New Veterans' Memorial

On May 26, 2012 town members of Delmar, Iowa dedicated a recently completed Veterans' Memorial on the Depot grounds. The memorial consists of an angled black wall with a list of our nation's conflicts, flags for each branch of military service, warrior statues both human and canine, and benches for reflection.

Ten figures representing US warriors through the years ring the angled wall. The latest figure represents a current US Army soldier who holding a small child.

On the opposite side of the black wall are six human figures saluting the flag with a canine. Up until today I have never seen any war memorial that included warrior dogs. To be even more poignant was the fact that this weekend the US flag was flown at half-staff in Iowa to honor Sgt. Michael Ristau, of Rockford, Ill with Iowa ties who was killed in Afghanistan on July 13th.

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