Mojave Cross Restored On Veterans Day

WHAT:

Liberty Institute on behalf of its client, the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW), is proud to announce the much-anticipated return of the Mojave Desert Veterans Memorial Cross, which, during 13 years of tumultuous litigation, has been bagged, put in a box, torn down and stolen by vandals. Just days before Veterans Day, it will be erected again on Sunrise Rock in the Mojave Desert—its original location about 2 hours from Las Vegas, NV and 4 hours from Los Angeles, CA—and then rededicated during an official ceremony.

Erected by the VFW in 1934 to honor World War I Veterans, the cross monument stood quietly for 67 years on public land until an ACLU lawsuit in 2001. The Mojave Desert Veterans Memorial is the only World War I Memorial designated by Congress as a National Memorial.

WHO:  

Liberty Institute, in conjunction with the VFW and the Mojave Cross' longtime caretakers Henry and Wanda Sandoz, will host many veterans, dignitaries and supporters. Hiram Sasser, Liberty Institute Litigation Director, will address the crowd and a military honor guard will participate, among other invited guests.

WHEN:

Veterans Day, Sunday, Nov. 11:

 -- 11 AM, Cross will be raised prior to ceremony

 -- 1 PM, Rededication ceremony begins

WHERE:

Mojave National Preserve

Cima Rd., Cima, CA 92364

DETAILS:

In April, U.S. District Judge Robert J. Timlin signed an order ending the ACLU's lawsuit and paving the way for the original one-acre memorial site on Sunrise Rock to transfer to the VFW, so they could restore the Memorial. The U.S. Congress authorized the land transfer in 2003.

Currently, Sunrise Rock sits vacant, except for plenty of indigenous cacti and rattlesnakes because vandals desecrated and stole the memorial after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of the memorial in 2010. In the same ruling, they also sent the case back to the district court to review the land transfer.