Nation’s First Iraq-Afghanistan War Memorial Built with Volunteer Union Labor

by Mike Hall, Jun 4, 2007

On Memorial Day in Salem, Ore., as in thousands of towns and cities across the nation, people gathered to honor the military men and women who gave their lives serving their country.

But what set Salem’s ceremony apart was that it took place at a memorial fountain and statue conceived, designed and built with volunteer union labor. Bill McMichaels, a 33-year member of the Plumbers and Pipe Fitters Local 290, was the driving force behind the Afghan-Iraqi Freedom War Memorial, the first in the nation honoring the men and women who’ve died in those conflicts.

The Northwest Labor Press says McMichaels:

designed the memorial, helped spearhead the drive to raise funds, and was the project manager responsible for finding skilled workers and contractors to donate their time and materials.

McMichaels contacted his union friends from the building trades—Iron Workers, Cement Masons, Carpenters, Electricians, apprenticeship training centers and others.

“No one turned me down. It was a real brotherhood,” he said.

McMichaels estimated it would have cost $800,000 to build the memorial without the 750 volunteers and all the donations.

McMichaels, a Vietnam War veteran, joined with an Independence, Ore., couple, whose son was killed in Iraq, to form the nonprofit foundation that raised funds and supervised the project. The memorial, on the grounds of the Oregon Department of Veterans’ Affairs, includes a 40-foot-wide fountain with an 8-foot bronze statue of a soldier kneeling on a pedestal rising out of the United States.

Click here to read the entire story in the online edition of the Northwest Labor Press.

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