New monument at Howard County park honors military veterans: ‘We remember their service’

As the nation remembers fallen service members on Memorial Day, Howard County residents can visit a new place to honor veterans in downtown Columbia.

After a decade of planning, designing and building, the Howard County Veterans and Military Families Monument opened to the public this month at Vivian C. “Millie” Bailey Park.

“I served in the Navy eight years myself, and I worked with a lot of great people, and so I think it’s important that we remember that,” said Robert Gillette, the president and CEO of the Howard County Veterans Foundation. “Freedom isn’t free, and the price that is paid is ultimately the loss of lives of our service members.”

Gillette explained that the project took nearly 10 years to complete, and now the permanent display is ready for the public to visit to honor the contributions of service members.

“We honor them; we remember their service. We thank them for their efforts, and particularly to their families for what they do for us when we’re deployed,” Gillette said. “Remember that this is a sacred place. It is a place of honor and respect.”

In 2017, land was set aside for the monument at the Lakefront in Columbia and the veterans foundation commissioned artist Larry Kirkland to design it. He has worked on other military-themed monuments and memorials.

The park is named for Vivian Bailey, a Columbia philanthropist who died in 2022. During World War II, she commanded an all-female detachment in the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps during World War II, according to Howard Community College’s website.

The foundation says on its website that it reached its goal to raise $2.75 million for construction in late 2024, but that it continues to raise money for monument maintenance and other costs.

The sculpture is composed of three stars — a base star representing the community that supports military service members and their families during a deployment, a blue star that commemorates service members and families, and a hollow gold star embedded in the blue star reflecting the hole created by the loss of service members in the line of duty.

It is encircled by a reflecting pond and bench.

When the design was announced, Howard County Executive Calvin Ball noted that Howard County was home to more than 20,000 veterans.

The monument is a symbol representing the community and sacrifice.

“That gold star is kind of bouncing off of what we call the service star, which is the base star, and the service star represents our veterans, and the gold star represents the fallen, and where the two come together, that’s how we service members stay connected to our fallen brothers and sisters,” Gillette said.

Gillette said that he wants the monument to be a reminder of how sacred life is and what it truly means to serve in the military.

“The freedoms and liberties that we enjoy that enable us to gather here on [the] Fourth of July, you know, for Lakefront Live. It’s because of the service and sacrifice of our veterans and military families that we’re able to do that,” Gillette said. “Read the words that are on the monument, read the quotes that are on the fountain, ponder their meaning, and just think about what it means to be a service member.”

Banner staff contributed to this report.

WJZ is a media partner of The Banner.