Tulsa's mystery memorial beside the Broken Arrow Expressway

A mystery memorial cropped up along the Broken Arrow Expressway in Tulsa. The mystery is who put it there. <br/><br/>News on 6 reporter Emory Bryan says it's a field of crosses in a median of the

Monday, May 23rd 2005, 9:50 am

By: News On 6

A mystery memorial cropped up along the Broken Arrow Expressway in Tulsa. The mystery is who put it there.

News on 6 reporter Emory Bryan says it's a field of crosses in a median of the Broken Arrow Expressway. Each cross has the name of a service member killed in Iraq and beyond that - we don't know much else.

It's a simple memorial and one that could be easily be missed. Thousands of drivers pass by and probably few even notice. But on a hilltop, planted with wildflowers, is a field of 32 white crosses. Each one has the name of a soldier, or Marine, killed in Iraq.

All of them died in April 2004. That was when the Iraqi city of Fallujah was under siege. It was when the pictures of the prison abuses were first published. It was another deadly month in the war.

Someone decided to remember that month and some of the names. The cross for Marine Corporal Garry Rimes shows he was 30 years old. He was killed April first of last year. Corporal Rimes, of California, was shot by insurgents as he protected a group of medics at the scene of a car bombing.

The cross for Specialist Jacob Herring tells little of his story, just that he was 21, killed on April 28th. He was from Washington, killed by a roadside bomb in Mosul, Iraq.

No one who keeps up with what happens on the median is sure who put the memorial here. The city of Tulsa mows the grass and they've mowed around it. The state owns the land, but didn't know the crosses were here. "Up with Trees" planted some pines and redbuds nearby, but they don't know who planted the crosses.

None of those groups are upset - but all are curious who took the time to build the crosses. And put them in five rows overlooking downtown and paint them with names like Dennis Morgan. He was killed by a bomb on April 1st. He and 31 others have been remembered, by someone, who didn't want these names forgotten.