WAUSAU, Wis. (WSAU) — A long-awaited memorial commemorating Hmong veterans and their efforts during the wars in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia will have to wait a little longer.
Retired Marathon County Administrator Mort McBain is one of many working on the project. He says they have discovered there were far more Marathon County Hmong veterans than they realized.
McBain said, “The delay was caused by the fact that we were trying to get the names of all of the Hmong veterans who have lived in this county, and it turned out to be really difficult. In fact, we’re not sure we’ve got a complete list yet, so we’ve put it off. In fact, the latest decision was that we are not going to put any of the individual names on the memorials. It’s just too difficult.”
McBain says the committee is hoping to finish the memorial and set a dedication date for later this fall. “We’re looking at sometime in either September or October to dedicate the statue, and it’s going to be a big event when it happens, but it is definitely coming.”
The twelve ton and 240-thousand dollar sculpture will have an eight-foot base and feature three bronze life-size soldiers, depicting two Hmong veterans assisting a downed American pilot. Many of the Hmong came to the United States after the war, as they no longer had a homeland.
