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Growing Santa Barbara war memorial sparks range of emotions

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By VERONICA TORREJON

Associated Press Writer

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (AP) – Lane Anderson sees the ghosts of fallen troops he knew in Vietnam when he gazes out at the sea of white crosses that cover the sandy shore near Stearns Wharf.

The memorial, fondly dubbed “Arlington West,” goes up at sunrise and down at sunset every Sunday to mark the rising death toll in Iraq. This week, more crosses will be added to the mock cemetery after the fierce fighting in Fallujah and Ramadi.

More than 30 years ago, Anderson made sense of his comrades’ deaths by telling himself the country had learned a lesson in Vietnam.

But last Sunday, he couldn’t help drawing parallels between that conflict and the war in Iraq as he and more than a dozen volunteers arranged with geometric precision each cross bearing the name, rank, age and hometown of a fallen U.S. fighter.

“I see a tragedy,” Anderson said. “I see Vietnam in its first year. Even then, people kept saying once we started the war we had to finish.”

Anderson and other volunteers from the Santa Barbara chapter of Veterans for Peace first erected the crosses last November and intend to continue the tribute until all the troops come home from Iraq.

It started as a simple plan so people could see the cost of war, said Stephen Sherrill, who conceived the idea and took it to the veterans group.

“Before, the casualties were just a number in the paper,” Sherrill said. “But I thought, when Americans see the price we are paying, they will understand.”

The idea caught on quickly, inspiring similar tributes in Santa Monica, Oceanside and Ann Arbor, Mich., with plans in the works for a display in Maine, said David Cline, national president of St. Louis-based Veterans for Peace.

For many, the crosses are simply a way to honor the fallen heroes who did their duty in Iraq.

“Each of those are people, and they had so much to do in this world,” Vietnam veteran Sharon Lee Kufeldt said as she surveyed the crosses in Santa Barbara. “I am one of them. I wore my uniform proudly, tears still run down my cheeks when I hear the songs.”

Sherrill, a semiretired building contractor and longtime anti-war activist, hand-makes every cross. When he first started about six months ago, there were close to 400. Last Sunday, there were 605.

With “Taps” playing in the background, a steady stream of tourists, merchants, veterans and locals paraded past the display.

Most stopped just long enough to scan a makeshift wall fashioned out of cardboard and wooden slats that features the names and pictures of every person killed. Some visitors lingered to take a closer look. Volunteers invited some to select a name and put flowers by their cross.

Nicole Soliman, 57, stopped at the edge of the memorial and silently wept. She was surprised several weeks ago to learn how many had been killed. The local resident now finds herself drawn back to the growing display every week.

“It’s my little way of paying tribute,” she said.

Passer-by Ray Sargent, 77, approved of the memorial but disagreed with the anti-war message. Sargent, a Korean War veteran, believes President Bush had reason to go to war.

“I think you people are beautiful for doing this,” he told a volunteer. “But we’ll never know until history tells us whether Bush was wrong or right.”

Chris Haskell, 45, respected the effort to honor the fallen fighters but disagreed with using their deaths to make a political statement.

“How many lives were saved by our invasion of Iraq?” he asked. “How many people who were imprisoned under Saddam were saved?”

Stacy Menusa, 31, made a pilgrimage from Santa Maria with her 4-year-old son Joshua and other family members to see the cross of her husband, Gunnery Sgt. Joseph Menusa – one of the first Marines killed in Iraq.

The native of the Phillippines was granted U.S. citizenship after he was killed in an Iraqi ambush.

His widow didn’t see the politics of war or a protest when she looked at the rows of white crosses.

“I see heroes,” she said.

AP-ES-04-09-04 1715EDT