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The town of West Liberty, in Eastern Kentucky, dedicated a monument this week commemorating women in the military. (See photo above.) Dori Hjalmarson of the Lexington Herald-Leader tells the wonderful story of how the statue of three service women came to stand in West Liberty’s Tredway Memorial Park. 

The Morgan County Woman’s Club has been working on the project for two years. The women collected some state money and raised funds locally to purchase the statue. The club has a veteran’s committee, which should be growing, since women are the fastest-growing population of vets. “It’s probably still considered a man’s job,” Emily Elam told Hjalmarson. Elam is the woman’s club veterans chair who led the effort to install the monument.”

Air Force Major Gen. Verna Fairchild, who spoke at the dedication, said women in the military struggle with a sense that they are invisible. But, she added, “Here’s a group of women in small-town America, and they’ve taken such pride in establishing this monument.”

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