Coalition Forces also honored with memorial
Chet Borowski has gotten good at counting the dead. Borowski, 50, is the keeper of the Coalition Memorial. The memorial is a tribute to any serviceman or woman affiliated with the Coalition Forces in any current conflict who had died, either while on duty or as a result of their service. While the permanent memorial is at his house in Sharon Township in Wisconsin, he brought a smaller version to Sycamore while The Wall That Heals - a half-scale replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial - is on display. The Coalition Memorial started with the counting stone, a foundation rock at the end of his driveway on which he kept track of the number of deaths. But that grew from just counting into finding the names of each person, his or her history and how they died. He calls it the living memorial because it is updated constantly, sometimes daily. The first wall with names of the fallen went up on his front lawn in July 2003. He now has 13 walls, and each wall has 35 panels: Laminated sheets of paper with photos, names, ranks, ages and details of how each person died. Each panel has nine to 11 names on it. As of Thursday, the memorial had 4,891 people from 28 countries. “Details tell the story,” he said. “And what is my job? My job is to make sure the fallen soldier's stories are told.” The traveling version on display in Sycamore is three walls, plus binders full of the other names. He hopes to build a permanent memorial in the future, possibly in Chicago. “I cannot ignore what is going on,” he said. “We are a country at war. Pro-war, anti-war, if you value human life, don't stick your head in the sand. This is my service to my country right now.” He spends anywhere from 20 to 40 hours a week on the project, which has grown, in some cases, to contact with families of the dead. He receives letters from many, thanking him for what he does. “What parent wouldn't be grateful to know a stranger cares about their child?” he said. Kate Schott can be reached at kschott@daily-chronicle.com.