Veterans Memorial at Saddleback College

Veterans Memorial dedicated at college (OC Reg)

Though it's just burnt-orange bricks and meticulously made waterfalls from afar, the monument up close is the visualization of the struggles and victories of those who live and those who died for this country.

The quad at Saddleback College was standing-room only Thursday – over 500 people strong – for the dedication of that monument, the college's Veterans Memorial, a football-shaped sculpture 14 feet high and 90 feet long highlighted by water features and life-size silhouettes of a soldier in full gear.

Each brick was created on campus, and the installation was completed with the help of people at the college and in the community.

The official unveiling of the $400,000 sculpture, designed by Saddleback art professor Richard White and ceramicist Fred Olsen, was attended by representatives for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, lawmakers, active and former members of the armed services and college students and staff.

A flag donated by the Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter 785, which was flown over Washington, D.C., and Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam, was raised over the monument during the dedication. That flag will have a permanent home in the college's Student Center.

Originally conceived in 2004 and intended to be a memorial for those who lost their lives in the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the scope of the project was expanded to include veterans and active service members.

Construction began about two years ago and though the monument has been unveiled, about $75,000 of its cost still needs to be raised, mostly through families purchasing bricks, stones or benches to commemorate loved ones.

"This is about the veterans; you don't want to put a lot of your own ego into it," White said. "We tried not to. We wanted to make it something people could put their own meaning to."

Jason Huebner of Laguna Niguel, who served in the Navy during Operation Desert Storm, said the sculpture lets veterans know their efforts don't go unnoticed.

"Anything we can do to not forget our past is going to help us in the future," he said.

Laguna Niguel resident Raymond Constantino, a veteran who recently completed two deployments in six years with the Navy, attends Saddleback and praised the college for keeping servicemen and women in mind.

"It's absolutely an honor to be recognized, especially at a college that I go to," he said. "It's good to remember the people that served, the people that are serving and the people that will be serving."

As the ceremony came to a close, people walked through the monument, took pictures and read the inscriptions of those whose names have been recorded in the bricks.

"I'm really proud we did it," said Michael Milberg of Mission Viejo, who helped craft the structure. "I'm kind of surprised all of these people came to see what I worked on."

Obituary of the Day: Nazi Child Molester Evangelical Preacher and Pinochet Supporter Finally Dies

Just the first paragraph is stunning enough, but read on.

from the Los Angeles Times:

Paul Schaefer dies at 89; Nazi founded Chilean colony

Paul Schaefer, a former Nazi Luftwaffe medic who founded a secretive, commune-like colony of German immigrants in Chile, died of heart failure Saturday in a Chilean prison where he was serving time for child molestation and human rights abuses dating to the dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet. He was 89.

Schaefer immigrated to Chile from his native Germany in 1961 and started Colonia Dignidad, or Dignity Colony, a strictly regimented enclave 210 miles south of Santiago that was home to several hundred Germans and Chileans.

According to witnesses' testimony in court documents, Schaefer allowed Pinochet's security forces to operate a clandestine prison on the grounds where they detained, tortured and executed dissidents during the 1973-1990 military dictatorship.

Colony members say he ruled them cruelly as well. Married couples were forced to live apart, and children were separated from parents. Residents were prevented from leaving. Those who angered Schaefer were subject to electric shocks, high doses of tranquilizers and long periods of isolation.

Many "became real slaves of Schaefer, like robots dedicated only to obey his orders and not displease him," members said in a newspaper ad they took out in 2006 acknowledging human rights abuses at the colony and asking for forgiveness. The colony is now called Villa Baviera.

There were also dozens of allegations of child molestation, leading Schaefer to flee the country in 1997. He was arrested in neighboring Argentina in 2005 and extradited back to Chile the same year.

Schaefer was convicted in 2006 of sexually abusing 20 children who attended the colony's school and clinic. He was sentenced to 20 years, plus three additional years for an illegal weapons conviction.

In two separate cases in 2008, Schaefer received more prison time for the torture of seven colony residents and for the fatal poisoning of a renegade security agent during the dictatorship.

After his World War II service, Schaefer became an evangelical preacher. He fled Germany after being accused of molesting boys at the orphanage he ran.

This is the kind of thing that make Rebel Girl want to drive on over to the Richard M. Nixon Library in nearby Yorba Linda just to see once again what kind of present Pinochet gave to Nixon.

She remembers the gift - or a description of it - being on display in a room dedicated to such gift from foreign heads of state and dignitaries who were near and dear to Tricky Dick. You know, like his pal, the Shah of Iran who offered up a tapestry portrait of Nixon in a cloisonne design wooden frame.


Or maybe she'd peruse the the Nixon Library's Pinochet Files themselves. To see what's available, click here.

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