Mojave Desert Cross To Rise Again As Veterans Memorial

The Mojave Desert Cross which was originally erected in 1934 by the VFW to honor World War I
veterans; will once again be raised on Veterans Day Nov. 11 at 11AM and will be re-dedicated
in a ceremony at 1PM.

The Liberty Institute which represented several major veterans groups as a friend of the court
in the Supreme Court case, made the announcement today.

The Memorial is located in the Mojave National Preserve, Cima Road, Cima, CA 92364.

The Mojave Desert Veterans Memorial is the only WWI Memorial that has been designated by
Congress as a National Memorial. It stood in place for over 60 peaceful years as a time honored tribute,
until 2001 when the ACLU filed a lawsuit claiming that the Cross stood on public land; and violated
the Constitution.

So for almost 13 years the legal battle has dragged on, during this time the Memorial was
bagged, torn down,  put in a box and stolen by vandals.

In April U.S. District Judge Robert J. Timlin signed an order ending the ACLU lawsuit and thus
paving the way for original 1 acre site on Sunrise Rock to be transferred to the VFW to allow them
to restore the Memorial. In 2003 the United States Congress had authorized the land transfer.

In 2010 the U.S. Supreme Court had ruled in favor of the Memorial and had sent the case back
to the district court to decide the land transfer.

We Thank the Liberty Institute for their help in this cause. The Institute is also representing the
Mt. Soledad Memorial Association in a similar case over the Mt. Soledad Veterans Memorial
that includes a cross on public land.  Also the institute is involved in another case, the Memorial
Peace Cross in Blandensburg, Maryland; a forty foot memorial that has stood for 85 years.


---- Jerald Terwilliger Former Chairman American Cold War Veterans "We Remember" ---------------- "And so the greatest of American triumphs... became a peculiarly joyless victory. We had won the Cold War, but there would be no parades." -- Robert M. Gates, 1996