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Crosses Bear Honor

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By LINDSAY PETERSON, The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 11, 2007

RUSKIN - The full meaning of Zachary Kiser's Boy Scout project didn't hit him until he saw the crosses stacked in the corner of his family's screened-in porch.

Seventy-seven of them lay together, each one 12 inches tall and painted white, each representing 50 lives lost.

"I was just amazed," he said. "I just thought of all the families."

Now the crosses stand in neat rows in front of the VFW in Ruskin, Zachary's tribute to the men and women of the U.S. military who have died since 2001 in Iraq and Afghanistan. The VFW officially dedicated Zachary's memorial on Saturday at the end of its Veteran's Day parade.

Eight weeks ago, when 15-year-old Zachary began his project, he had nothing but a vague idea.

"I wanted to do something about the military," mainly because his father, Tony, had spent 20 years in the Air Force.

So a family friend who had served in Afghanistan, Jay Steele, introduced Zachary to the commander of the Ruskin VFW at the time, Jim McAllister.

Zachary wanted to do something with crosses. "You think about war. You think about crosses," he said. McAllister suggested a memorial. Zachary imagined Arlington National Cemetery.

But he couldn't possibly make more than 3,800 crosses. With his parent's help, he decided he could manage one for every 50 men and women killed. Still, that was nearly 250 feet of wood, dozens of screws and several gallons of primer and paint.

The local Ace Hardware store provided the materials at a discount. Friends donated money. And Zachary's dad and Scout troop members cut, assembled and painted. Zachary couldn't do the labor himself, according to scout rules. He had to supervise. The project is part of Zachary's efforts to become an Eagle Scout.

"He's a very quiet kid. But he had to talk for this. He had to give people tasks," Steele said. "I was amazed. He almost got bossy."

Zachary hoped to get a sign for a discount, too. His dad got it for free, from Fast Signs in Brandon.

On Nov. 3, friends and Scouts gathered in front of the VFW with the pieces of the memorial. Zachary had a picture of Arlington as a guide. On a base of plastic sheeting and dark orange mulch, they planted the 77 crosses, then stepped back to take a look.

Something wasn't right, Tony Kiser said. "There's an art to that alignment, and we didn't get it."

They took all the crosses down, studied Zachary's picture, then tried again.

It took six hours, but by the end of the day, 77 crosses stood in Arlington-style rows, each with little flags. Overhead, a 4-by-8-foot sign read, "Dedicated to the Men and Women That Have Died in the War in Iraq and Afghanistan," the words in blue on the background of an American flag.

"At night, with the light on it, it almost looks like it's waving," Tony Kiser said.

"I didn't know how this was going to turn out," said VFW quartermaster George Hilton. "But it's something we need."

In the Army for 23 years, Hilton was in Vietnam and Desert Storm. His two sons were in Iraq. They're home now.

"A lot of hard work went into this," said Steele, who helped build roads and bridges with the Air Force in Afghanistan. "It was an honor to be a part of it."

Zachary's Scout Troop 601 will maintain the memorial, his father said. He realizes what that means.

"We have more material," he said. "We can make more crosses, if we have to."

Reporter Lindsay Peterson can be reached at (813) 259-7834 or lpeterson@tampatrib.com.

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