The Cross Project Bringing It Home

In March of 2004, on the 1st anniversary of the most current war on Iraq, Viet Nam war veteran Skip Edwards of Crawford, Colorado, had to speak out. Having flown munitions and weapons over to Viet Nam, he then returned to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware with pallets of coffins: he became intimately familiar with the cost of war in lives.

Only 3 decades later, history is now repeating itself. And with the lockdown on media coverage of the bodies coming back to America, the average citizen is not aware of the daily deaths in the ongoing war. So, Skip Edwards and Eric Rechel of Grand Junction took paint stirring sticks and built crosses for each soldier killed in the war. They then displayed 585 personalized crosses in Grand Junction, CO, to recognize the loss of American lives in the war. The response to the visual display was visceral.

With the help of This Republic CAN, a citizens group in Telluride, CO, dedicated to engaging the public through education and action, the Iraq war memorial cross project now travels around the western US. Each of the now more than 3,800 crosses is personalized, with a photo, the name and rank of the deceased, their age, their hometown, and the cause of death.

The display has been erected 18 times in 3 states. On each of the anniversaries of this nearly 5-year old war, Grand Junction, CO, has hosted the memorial. It has also been to ten other Colorado communities: Alamosa, Carbondale, Colorado Springs, Cortez, Durango, Gunnison, Montrose, Pueblo, Ridgway, and Telluride. These crosses have also traveled to the capital of Montana - Helena, Missoula, MT, and Nevada.

If you are interested in bringing the Crosses to your community
please contact c@thisrepublicCAN.us

IMPORTANT NOTE: The cross motif utilized is used ONLY as a universal symbol of death and is not intended to promote any one religion.

Links for Data on War Casualties

http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2003/iraq/forces/casualties/2007.09.html

http://icasualties.org/oif/