HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WAFF) – A monument in Huntsville honors the families of fallen service members and the sacrifice they continue to make.
The Huntsville, Madison County Veteran’s Memorial serves as a constant reminder of hundreds of local heroes who fought valiantly and died for our country. But behind all the statues and granite markers, lies another monument that honors families that those fallen heroes left behind.
The Gold Star Families Monument was the first of its kind in Alabama, built in 2020 to serve as a reminder of the sacrifice these families made, and the price they’ve paid every day since their loved one passed.
“In addition to the person who’s gone from our midst now, we’re still here, and we’re still missing that person,” said Julie Kink, co-chair of Gold Star Families Memorial Monument Committee. “And there are ways that we can remember them that patch that a little bit.”
Kink, a Madison resident, has a special connection to the monument she helped bring to Huntsville almost six years ago. She’s a Gold Star sister herself.
Her brother Officer David Kink died in 1969 while flying in the Vietnam War. He was just 19 years old.
“My brother never had a mortgage, a credit card, never found the first gray hair, never decided what to do with his life or what girl to settle down with,” Kink said. “So, there’s always a loss. There’s something missing from all of our lives.”
As war in Iran continues, at least 13 US service members have lost their lives. Kink has a message to those families that are experiencing this loss in real time.
“They’ll never be forgotten, and we acknowledge your loss as our loss because we have no idea what great things all of those people would have done in their lives,” she said.
