Veterans raising funds for Iraq Veterans Memorial

Veterans raising funds for Iraq Veterans Memorial in Riverview

YVETTE C. HAMMETT/STAFF
Air Force and Iraq War veteran Mark Goujon, left, and Army veteran Mike Zaffino are helping to raise money for the Iraq war memorial.

By YVETTE C. HAMMETT
The Tampa Tribune
Published: June 20, 2012
RIVERVIEW

For Mark Goujon, heading up the committee to raise funds for an Iraq Veterans Memorial is a labor of love for the six teammates he lost during Operation Enduring Freedom.

"My motivation is those six people that I served with that didn't come back," the Air Force Iraq War veteran said.

Goujon served beside those fallen comrades on teams sent out to gather intelligence on roadside bombs and, after bombings, to seek evidence to determine who set off the explosives.

"With this memorial here, we won't have to go to Washington, D.C., to honor them, and our kids and grandkids will know the effort we put into this," Goujon said.

Army veteran Mike Zaffino didn't serve in Iraq, but he was at the Pentagon the day the plane hit — Sept. 11, 2001. "And I had many friends who served and have fallen" in Iraq, he said.

Joining them on the committee to raise $250,000 for an Iraq Veterans Memorial in Veterans Memorial Park are Tim Lawn, who is in the Army and preparing to deploy to Afghanistan; Bosnia and Iraq Army veteran Mike Graham; and Iraq Army veteran Chris Harrington.

This memorial will be the second of 12 theaters of war set to be constructed at the park on U.S. 301 next to the Tampa Bypass Canal.

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial was completed in 2011.

Goujon wants to have the Iraq memorial completed in time to dedicate it on Veterans Day 2013.
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