‘I will have your back.’ Veterans gather at Idaho cemetery to unveil new statue
Just after 9 a.m., two UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters flew over the crowd at the Idaho State Veterans Cemetery before continuing on in the sky above the Treasure Valley. American flags marked headstones lit with sunshine, and a white tarp covered a structure in front of the crowd.
Military veterans and their families gathered on Saturday morning to dedicate a statue for soldiers killed in action and to honor military service this Memorial Day weekend.
After the helicopter flyover, members of the Boise Valley POW/MIA Corporation, which aims to raise awareness for prisoners of war and soldiers missing in action, pulled off the tarp and unveiled the figures.
Called “I will have your back always ...,” the bronze statue depicts a male soldier kneeling in prayer with the dog tags of his comrades in his hands, while a female soldier rests her hand on his back and looks south across the valley, alert for danger.
“This (statue) symbolizes our absolute respect for all of our veterans, past, current and future,” Dirk Kempthorne, a former governor of Idaho, told the Statesman. He was involved in organizing the effort and gathering the funding to commission the statue.
Kempthorne said the combination of a man and a woman is significant, as it affirms that “in defense of our liberties and freedom, men and women stand shoulder to shoulder.”
The man wears a uniform soldiers donned in the Vietnam War, while the woman wears clothing from the Gulf War, according to Kempthorne. Inside each statue is a bronze heart that contains “sacred soil” taken from battlefields that have been fought on during American wars.
“It’s a beautiful symbol of the friendship that our service members feel for each other,” Benjamin Victor, the Boise artist who created the sculpture, told the Statesman. He said that prayer is an important part of the depiction, because when he visited the cemetery’s hillside before beginning his work, he felt “there was a solemn, spiritual nature to it.”
Victor, who has built sculptures in several states, is the only living artist to have three sculptures in the National Statuary Hall of the U.S. Capitol, according to his website.
The State Veterans Cemetery opened in 2004, and to date there are about 9,000 people buried there, according to James Earp, the bureau chief of the cemetery. Brandon Titus, a soldier from Boise killed in the war in Iraq, was the first to be buried at the cemetery.
Idaho was the last American state to not have its own veterans cemetery, but the site in Northwest Boise now holds the graves of soldiers from every American war since World War I, as well as veteran’s spouses and children.
“When I see the statue, it’s a reminder that our military service members span generations,” Earp told the Statesman.
Albertsons, the Idaho grocery store chain, donated the funds for the statue, according to Kempthorne, and Guho Corp and Gerhard Borbonus Landscaping donated construction work and the statue’s sandstone base.
The event, originally scheduled for Memorial Day last year, was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
An Idaho National Guard Color Guard opened and closed Saturday’s ceremony, at which Gov. Brad Little and Brig. Gen. Timothy Donnellan also spoke. The state chaplain with the National Guard, Colonel Robert Morris, recited an invocation and closing prayer.
During his speech, General Donnellan talked about how less than 1% of Americans have been in the armed forces, and that leaders should emphasize the “value” of serving in the military or in government.
“It’s not about the toys in our garage or the money in our bank account,” he said. “It’s about living a life of purpose.”
