Nassau County will construct a memorial honoring residents who died serving the United States in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, officials said Monday.
Officials said they will break ground in the fall, nearly two decades since the start of the Afghanistan conflict. The monument will be located in Eisenhower Park in East Meadow, near the Veterans Memorial, officials said. It will join the memorial honoring the veterans who served in World War II, the Korean War and Vietnam along with the memorial that honors all the armed forces in Eisenhower Park.
Nassau County Executive Laura Curran said the decision to construct the monument was made primarily to honor those from Nassau who served their nation oversees and to educate younger and future generations.
“We must ensure that present and future generations continue to appreciate the sacrifice that our veterans in all wars have made to protect our freedoms, our very precious freedoms, that when you consider them are very rare throughout the course of human history,” Curran said.
The county, Curran said, entered into a public-private partnership with Heroes Among Us, a non-for-profit organization based in Nassau County, to aid in erecting the monument. The organization already committed $10,000 of the roughly $100,000 needed for the memorial, Curran said.
Heroes Among Us was started by Virginia Cervasio after her 24-year-old son, Angelo, took his life in 2006 after battling post-traumatic stress disorder from serving the Air Force in Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf in the communications management field.
Cervasio told Newsday, “This memorial has a very special place in our hearts,” acknowledging that veterans who died from suicide after returning home will also be included in the monument.
According to U.S. census statistics, more than 4,200 Nassau County residents served in the Iraq or Afghanistan wars since Sept. 11, 2001. According to Newsday statistics, 16 county residents died in Iraq and five died in Afghanistan.
Curran said roughly 50,000 military veterans reside in Nassau County.
