The Gainesville chapter of Veterans for Peace erected more than 6,000 tombstones along a mile of Northwest Eighth Avenue between Northwest 34th Street and Northwest 23rd Street this Memorial Day weekend.
The tombstones, which stood in rows of four, with 6 inches between columns and 4 feet between rows, were part of a memorial to United States soldiers who have died in the wars in Afghanistan since 2001 and Iraq since 2003.
This is the fifth year the memorial has been displayed, and as the number of casualties continues to climb, it will not be the last, said Scott Camil, president of Veterans for Peace Chapter 14.
There's nearly 200 feet of space between the last stones placed and a sign that reads "Afghanistan 2012" in expectation of next years' victims.
It took about 30 minutes for some to walk the tribute, stopping every so often to look at unfamiliar names and handwritten messages along the way. But for Anita High, it took longer.
"Your mom misses you like crazy," High wrote on the stone of her nephew Randolph A. Sigley, 28, who was killed April 18, 2010 in Afghanistan.
When a person writes a message on one of the stones, the VFP knows the stone was visited and decorates it with a flag each year, Camil said. In the first year, there were 12 stones with flags for soldiers with local ties.
This year, there were more than 70 stones with flags from around the country.
Aymen Almarrani, 20, an Iraqi student studying at Santa Fe College, put a picture and a poem at the stone of Peter Neesley, 28, of Grosse Point Farms, Mich., on behalf of Neesley's mother and sister.
Almarrani never met Neesley when he was alive but has a unique tie to him.
Almarrani worked as a translator for the U.S. Army and the Iraqi Society for Animal Welfare. He said soldiers like Neesley often befriend stray dogs in Iraq and don't want to leave them behind when they come home. The ISAW works to get those pets shipped to the soldiers in the United States.
Neesley had mentioned his two dogs, Mamma and Borris, to his family while he was in Iraq.
After Nessley was killed, the dogs were left behind without anyone to look after them. Neesley's family requested the dogs be brought home and Almarrani was the one responsible for reuniting Mamma and Borris with their family.
"It was piece of Peter," Almarrani said. "It felt great to bring them [home]."
Other people who visited the memorial had no direct ties to those on the stones, but said seeing them all spread out along the mile of road gave the lives lost overseas a new perspective to people here.
"You drive past, and it just keeps going," said Evan Webb Stuart, 22, a UF student.
Kirk Anthony, a VFP volunteer, said he understood some wars had to be fought, but he wished more people would come out and show respect for the people who fought those wars and paid the ultimate price.
Anthony's son, Mark DeFord, 25, did two tours in Iraq and has been out of the Marines for 10 months.
DeFord said he hopes the display will prevent the need for memorials like this in the future.
"When our generation's making policy, their kids will be in a similar display," he said, "if we allow it to happen."
