‘Slap in the face to our veterans’
Michigan war memorial destroyed by flooding
SANFORD, Mich. – The road leading to the Sanford Flagpole Monument was closed, washed out by the flood.
Kim Burgess heard the monument was under water after the flood that devastated this small community. Then, she heard a report that was far worse. So she headed toward the monument – the one she and her husband, Jon, helped build – but she was stopped at a police barricade.
“Are you Ryan Burgess’ mother?” an officer said.
“Yes,” she said.
Marine Lance Cpl. Ryan Burgess was killed on Dec. 21, 2006, when an improvised explosive device blew up his Humvee on a mission in Iraq. He was 21.
“I’m not supposed to let anybody by,” the officer said. “But I’m gonna let you go by.”
Kim Burgess parked as close as she could get to the monument. She and Jon, who are retired from Dow Chemical, thought about making a monument for years. But they didn’t want it to honor only Ryan. They wanted it to be for all veterans.
Sanford never had a war memorial until Ryan died. More than 100 people from the community played a role in building it, raising money or donating supplies. Last year, the town’s Memorial Day parade started and ended at the monument.
In some ways, the monument became the heart and soul of Sanford, reflecting civic pride, duty, and honor. The monument made Sanford glow – quite literally. It had a lighting system that seemed to make half the town light up at night.
Kim got out of her truck and walked toward the monument. Roads were ripped up. Houses washed away. Buildings destroyed. Debris was everywhere.
She saw two men leaning against a building and one approached her.
“I’m not gonna let you go see this alone,” said Terry Foley, who works at Fisher Sand & Gravel, one of the major contributors for the memorial.
Foley tried to brace Kim for what she was going to see.
“I know it’s gonna be devastating, but I want you to know we’re already working to rebuild it,” Foley said.
Kim reached the memorial and was crushed. The monument was destroyed.
“I sat there and cried,” Kim said. “I just felt like I had let our veterans down. I know it wasn’t my fault. I just feel like I worked so hard to give them something, and it was just destroyed.”
The monument was a thing of beauty, a testament to a small-town determination, community involvement, and pride. More than 10 businesses donated money or supplies and the Sanford American Legion Riders held fundraisers over three years. In total, they raised about $70,000 to build it.
The flag poles formed a background for a military field cross – a symbolic figure that features a fallen soldier’s weapon stabbed into the ground, with a boot on either side and a helmet on the stock.
But the storm snapped six of the poles, bent another one and knocked the field cross into a muddy puddle.
“I can take anything,” Kim said. “I lost a son in Iraq. Bring it. But I cannot see that laying in the mud. We can’t let this lay in the mud.”
“Kim, I promise we will get it out for you,” Foley said.
Somebody found the giant U.S. flag in the mud. Foley folded it up and handed it to Kim. “I know it’s not much but I’d like you to have this,” Foley said.
After a while, the shock and pain were replaced with resolve and determination.
“We’re gonna build this thing again,” Kim said. “If it takes us 10 years, we’re gonna do this for our veterans. We want these veterans to know that we still love them. We still care for them.”
They have already started plans to rebuild the monument, forming a GoFundMe fundraising campaign.
“We are gonna need help,” Kim said. “We’re going to need help from our community again, but we are going to do this.”