These words are inscribed on the base of a newly-installed
of the military and just below the marble statues of a male
and female veteran who now stand tall to represent the more than
The monument, now located in the Cherokee County Veterans
came about through a nine-month campaign by Cherokee County
veterans, led by Jim Lindenmayer, Director of the Cherokee
County Homeless Veteran Program and Joseph Hickey, owner of
the Macedonia Memorial Park, located just up from the Veterans
Park.
The genesis for the monument came after Hickey and his
business partner Bart Williams both had encounters with
homeless veterans. Hickey, who is not a veteran but his father was
a WW2 veteran, received a call from a Cherokee County mother
the woods outside of St. Louis with a bible in his hand. Williams,
whose father was a Medal of Honor recipient for actions while
attached to the Army Special Forces in Vietnam, encountered an
82-year-old homeless Korean War veteran living on the streets.
Both men contacted Lindenmayer, and it was at this meeting
with Betty Lewis that Hickey announced that he wanted to do
| February 2019 | Real Hero Report
something that could shine the light on the homeless veteran
issue. The idea of creating a monument, which would not only
highlight the issue that no veteran should ever be homeless but
to show respect for those veterans who have found themselves
homeless, no matter the cause, was born.
Shortly thereafter, a committee of local Cherokee veterans who
represented all branches of the service, as well as various service
needed was a statue design and after a couple of iterations, Jim
Bennett, a Korean Army veteran, came up with the two statue
designs. The female veteran statue was modeled after a female
Marine, who for 31 years fought bouts of homelessness as a result
of a failed NCIS drug sting that left her with many issues. The
VA had originally and continually denied this veteran any type of
Since she still was being treated by the VA, Lindenmayer, with
the help of the local Georgia Department of Veteran Services and
of not only the monument, but six marble benches donated by
friends of the program to allow visitors to relax and enjoy the
view the monument. The monument also would not have been
possible without the help of many veteran-owned businesses,
Nation’s First Homeless
Veteran Monument
Dedicated in Cherokee
County
Veterans current and past who had endured being homeless after serving
our country.
Sequoyah Air Force JRTOC under the command of LTC Ron Whittle at