New York City plans to build a memorial to honor U.S. military members killed while serving in Afghanistan and Iraq after the 9/11 attacks.
The memorial will honor 99 New York service members killed in action overseas. The monument is expected to be built in Whitestone, Queens, along the waterfront near the Utopia Parkway Seawall.
The fallen service members deserve to be “memorialized now and forever,” Mayor Eric Adams said Thursday.
“With this new memorial, we will honor a new generation of souls who gave their lives far too early in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan while simultaneously paying tribute to the hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers who have served our country in these wars,” Adams said. “God bless their memories.”
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Queens was selected as the location for the memorial because it is home to the largest number of servicemembers killed in the post-9/11 era. The borough is also home to the largest number of military veterans, according to the mayor’s office.
The memorial is expected to be part of a refurbished walkway and bike path along the waterfront near the Whitestone Bridge.
More than 7,000 U.S. troops died in fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq, the longest military conflicts in the nation's history. Nearly 2977 people were killed in the 9-11 attacks along with the 19 hijackers. It is believed more than 3,000 more people have died of 9/11 related illnesses, many of them first responders who were in lower Manhattan when the towers fell.
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The memorial for the fallen will be paid for with privately raised funds as well as public capital project dollars. An artist selection process will be put in place starting June 3 “…to ensure the memorial appropriately reflects the bravery and sacrifice of the fallen service members from this generation.”
New York City Department of Veteran’s Services Commissioner James Hendon said the memorial will be “set along the peaceful waterside” to provide “a place of serene reflection.”
