Ground has been broken for a national Desert Storm memorial in Washington. Indiana veterans hope to follow suit in Indianapolis:

The Military/Veterans Coalition of Indiana has formed a nonprofit to gather ideas for designing two memorials, to veterans of the first Gulf War and the War on Terror. The coalition plans a series of town halls across Indiana to request design ideas.

Chairman Ron Martin expects the memorials to cost a couple of million dollars, but won’t have a firm estimate or a location till there’s a design. Coalition vice president Jim Bauerle says he expects the memorial to follow the lead of the Washington Desert Storm Memorial in taking an “uplifting” tone, celebrating a 34-nation coalition’s success in forcing Iraqi troops out of neighboring Kuwait.

The veterans’ group previously spearheaded the installation of the statue at Indianapolis International Airport of Harvey Weir Cook, the Indiana-born pilot who flew in both world wars.

Indianapolis boasts it ranks second only to Washington in its number of veterans’ memorials. Martin says the two proposed new ones would carry on a tradition of recognizing veterans’ “selfless sacrifice, unwavering dedication, duty, honor, and placing country over themselves.”