Tractor-trailer ferries statues of military personnel to Las Vegas Veterans Memorial site

Folks on the Strip had something special to cheer about Wednesday.

A flatbed tractor-trailer rig with about a dozen larger-than-life statues of soldiers, sailors, Marines and airmen from all the nation’s wars made for an impromptu veterans parade as it hauled the centerpiece items to their final destination at the Las Vegas Veterans Memorial site outside the Sawyer Building.

“As we were coming down Las Vegas Boulevard, people we’re cheering, clapping, taking pictures. They were stopping traffic,” said Gary Lulis, project manager for XL Steel Inc., the company that welded the base plates on the statues at its shop near Flamingo Road.

“Everybody was so excited about it as we were to get involved in this great, great project that honors the veterans,” he said.

It was “another milestone in the accomplishment for this memorial,” said Mick Catron, chairman of the Las Vegas Veterans Memorial Foundation, the driving force behind the $2.2 million project.

“When that truck finally rolled into the site, it was a sense of pride for the veteran community. … We’re coming up on completion. Just another six weeks away and we’ll have it done,” he said.

A crane lifted the statues from the flatbed truck one by one and swung them into position at the 2-acre site that flanks the Sawyer Building.

Gov. Brian Sandoval will dedicate the long-awaited memorial on Friday, May 27 so visitors can enjoy its debut through the Memorial Day weekend.

The Las Vegas Veterans Memorial will be a national tribute to veterans of all eras, with 18 statues of U.S. military personnel from the Revolutionary War to the ongoing wars in Afghanistan and the Middle East. Some statues are made of aluminum-magnesium alloy; others are made of bronze.

They were designed and produced by sculptor Douwe Blumberg and sponsored by the Las Vegas Veterans Memorial Foundation and American Shooters Inc., in partnership with Nevada.

“Much of what you see here has been donated either with veteran-owned companies themselves, or by companies that are nonveteran (owned) but on behalf of the veteran,” Catron said. “It’s a great project, great involvement. And as you see, it’s starting to come to fruition now.”

Contact Keith Rogers at krogers@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0308. Find him on Twitter: @KeithRogers2