Welcome Home Soldier Monument

[Abby Brown] Our day to day lives are usually pretty busy with school, family time, friends, and activities. So we might not always stop to think about the freedoms we have as we go about our lives.

Well, there's a very special place in southern Iowa that honors all the people who worked hard and made sacrifices to keep our country free.

(Map marking Monroe County in southern Iowa.)

Tucked amongst the rolling hills and wide open spaces of Albia lies the Welcome Home Soldier Monument.

It was designed and built with one thing in mind - providing a place where all American military veterans, past and present, are honored.

A local veteran came up with the idea for this monument in 2005.

A veteran is someone who has served in any branch of the military. Army. Navy. Air Force. Marines. Coast Guard. Space Force. The service men and women honored here have served in wartime and peacetime.

The Welcome Home Soldier Monument has a lot to see. It's free for visitors to walk around and check out all of the different war memorials.

A line of 21 white crosses representing the 21 gun salute, a tradition that symbolizes respect and honor, lead up to the Wall of Honor.

This black granite memorial has thousands of veterans’ names etched in it. And more current and past veterans' names are added all the time.

This Iwo Jima statue represents an important battle in World War Two.

(A sculpture of four soldiers planting the flag of the United States on a pole into the ground.)

There's a Vietnam War memorial.

(A sculpture of three soldiers dressed in camouflage uniforms holding guns in front of them as they move in a line across the landscape.)

And a Korean War monument.

(One soldier assists another soldier as they move across the field, while an additional soldier is at their back keeping watch.)

One of the more emotional tributes here is the battlefield crosses. When a service man or woman died in battle, it became customary to arrange their boots, rifle and helmet into the shape of a cross.

Ever since the Revolutionary War, a bugle was used to communicate information to soldiers. Every day at 8:00 a.m., this bugle statue plays Reveille to announce the start of a new day.

At 5:00 p.m. it plays Taps, signaling the end of the day.

Outside of Washington, D.C., the Welcome Home Soldier Monument in this small Iowa town is one of the biggest in the country.

Every county in Iowa has brave veterans who have served our country. Here in Monroe County, there's a remarkable place where you can pause and appreciate the sacrifices they made for our freedom.

Funding for FIND Iowa has been provided by The Coons Foundation, Pella and the Gilchrist Foundation.