Written by Ben Cox – Four of the large stone memorials at the Central Texans Veterans Memorial across the street from Brownwood Regional Medical Center were toppled this weekend.
The damage was discovered by President of the Memorial Harold Steiber on Sunday morning. “I found it at 8 a.m. Sunday morning when I came to work on the (recently acquired Vietnam UH-1 Medi-vac) helicopter, and my power tools wouldn’t work. The breaker is just behind one of the (monuments) and after I flipped it, I looked up and saw what had happened.”
The downed granite memorial monuments paid tribute to the men from Brown County who fought in World War 1, World War 2, Korea and Vietnam, as well as the Infantry Division that called Camp Bowie home during WWII.
The estimated damage done to the memorial is close to $40,000. Assistant Brownwood Police Chief James Fuller, who was in training today with Chief Nichols, said this weekends weather could be the cause for the toppled monuments. “We had straight line winds on Sunday.” Damage around town included power outages and several large downed trees.
Col Tom Gray, who also volunteers at the memorial, says it was not an accident. “The engineers say no way it was wind, not with the amount of tonnage we are dealing with here.” Gray continued “It must’ve been some big old boys, more than one for sure to knock those down.”
Stieber says he isn’t sure if the monuments are insured. “This is a city owned park, and the monuments were individually donated. So I don’t know if there is any insurance on them at all, but we have plans to replace them.”
The Memorial Day service scheduled for the Central Texas Veterans Memorial will still be held next Monday despite the damage, according to Memorial Secretary and Treasurer Joyce Leidig. “We start at 11:00, right here” said Leidig. The public is also invited to attend.
