SOUTH SIOUX CITY -- The Siouxland Freedom Park is hosting a photo display of fallen service members from Iowa and Nebraska who served in the years after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.Â
The exhibit, "Remembering Our Fallen," will be open to the public 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and from noon to 5 p.m. Sunday. Admission is free.Â
Bill Williams of Omaha, the co-creator of the traveling exhibit, set up the photos at the Freedom Park's Interpretive Center Thursday. He said there are about 90 photos of fallen service members from Nebraska and about 90 from Iowa on display. Â
Williams said the exhibit came about in 2011, after he read an article in the Omaha World-Herald about the father who had lost a son in Iraq, and the father's concern that his son would be forgotten. The story was profound for Williams and his wife Evonne, whose own sons were in the service.Â
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The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Williams said, were an afterthought for many Americans, particularly as the years went by. This left the families of soldiers who died in service with an isolated sense of loss that wasn't really shared by the broader community.Â
"You know, it's not like World War II, where everybody was involved with Victory Gardens and scrap-metal drives and, 'we're all in this together,'" Williams said. "With Iraq and Afghanistan, most people weren't affected -- they didn't have anybody in the military, or certainly anybody that died in the service. So the people that have had that tragedy felt neglected, so to speak."Â
The traveling exhibits had run nonstop from 2011 until the COVID-19 pandemic hit last year. The Williamses, through their Patriotic Productions organization, later set up photo memorials for fallen service members across several other states -- the largest was California, where the line of photos stretches for 240 feet, compared to about 40 feet for Iowa and Nebraska.
They also set up a national traveling memorial, which they call the "Tribute Towers," with photos of 5,000 service members. Their tower exhibits have also included photos of service members who died of suicide and in training accidents.Â