Behind the powder blue Bigfork VFW on Montana 35, big changes have quietly taken shape this summer: a community-driven effort to install four veteran and first-responder memorials and create an oasis for healing and remembrance.  

A memorial for the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 in New York City has already been constructed, with twin stone pillars to represent the towers that fell. There are plans to install a Three Soldiers Statue for veterans of the Vietnam War, as well as a memorial for Gold Star families.  

In the center of the shaded hillside, though, is the monument that inspired the entire project – Bigfork’s Benghazi Memorial, which was created in 2014 to honor the four lives lost in the terror attack on the United States Embassy in Benghazi, Libya on Sept. 11, 2012.  

The bronze eagle, with a six-foot wingspan, depicted swooping from above and permanently fixed to a rock pedestal, is the only known Benghazi memorial in the United States. That it exists in Bigfork is something of an accident of chance traced back to Bill Thomas, a Ventura County paramedic and firefighter.  

Thomas had read an article in the Bigfork Eagle that the parents of Tyrone Woods, the retired Navy SEAL and CIA agent killed in the attack, had moved to Bigfork, and despite the fact he didn’t know the family, he felt he needed to do something to memorialize the tragic event. 

Thomas was also good friends with local resident Doug Averill, and the two collaborated to create the memorial, which was placed on Averill’s elk preserve. Each year, Thomas’ nonprofit 9/11 Honor and Serve Foundation hosted a ceremony to commemorate both Sept. 11 tragedies. 

The 2025 memorial though, was sparsely attended. Among those there was Ron Wenzel, who had been a police officer in New Jersey when the planes hit the towers. Sept. 11 hits him particularly hard each year: he lost friends in the attack and enlisted in the armed forces, deploying to Afghanistan in 2011.  

“I went away, and I was thinking, ‘Did we forget?’” Wenzel said. “Because we said we would never forget.” 

Wenzel mulled over what he had seen. Surely the story here was not that people had stopped caring about the tragic events that had claimed the lives of so many people he had known. As he thought about it, he realized that the lack of attendance probably had far more to do with the memorial’s location, on private property, hidden away from the public and behind lock and key. Much of the public probably didn’t even know it existed, and even if they hadn’t forgotten the events of 9/11 and Benghazi, the memorial itself was out of sight and out of mind. 

Wenzel pitched an idea to Thomas: what if the memorial was moved to the Bigfork VFW, where Wenzel serves as quartermaster, and where the public could access it at any time and come to pay their respects to the lives lost in the attack.  

Thomas was surprised that the VFW would be willing to take on such a project, but he liked the idea and Wenzel secured approval from the VFW board. 

Thomas and Averill came out to look at the future site, and Averill grabbed a napkin and started etching a vision for the future memorial, a vision that has slowly come to life through the hard work and donations of community members.  

“This is it, this is what the napkin looked like,” Wenzel said, gesturing widely toward the gently sloping hills and multiple memorials being erected behind the VFW. While the project is still far from complete, he can picture what the shady oasis beneath the trees will look like when it is finished. 

Skylar Johnson, a Bigfork resident and owner of Markay Johnson construction, has donated to the project. A former special forces soldier in the Army, Johnson wanted to pay tribute to his fellow servicemen and women.  

“We could not have done that without Skylar and his company jumping in to help us out,” Wenzel said. "That donation was so significant that the Bigfork VFW would have never been able to raise the funds to make it happen without him.” 

Initially, the other memorials were not part of the plan, but as veterans in the community heard about the project, Wenzel and the VFW realized there is a need for a space where veterans and first responders are able to gather to reflect and heal.  

“We had our monthly meeting here, and we had a group of Vietnam vets come to the meeting, and they just start tearing up,” Wenzel said. “They said, ‘We have no places where we can go and reflect. We could go to D.C. but it's expensive. We can't get there. Where do we go to reflect? What would you guys think about us putting the Three Brothers statue up there?’” 

Wenzel told them the VFW would make it happen. He recognizes that having a place of memorial and reflection is incredibly important for veterans in Montana, who suffer from a disproportionately high rate of suicide. Per statistics from the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, the suicide rate for veterans in Montana is 1.5 times higher than that of the national rate for veteran suicide, and 3 times higher than the general population’s suicide rate.  

“The suicide rates for veterans are horrible,” said Bigfork VFW Commander Steve Gordon. “We all have our stories of helping somebody down. Having some place for people to go, that one gets to be very, very important.” 

As part of the second phase of the project, the VFW is also applying to construct a Gold Star Family Memorial site, for the family members of soldiers killed in combat. The only memorial in Montana is in Bozeman, which Wenzel believes is a disservice to local Gold Star Families like the Saltz family, whose son Captain Edward Matthew Saltz was the first Montanan killed in action in Iraq in 2003. 

“There were a lot of tears,” Wenzel said, when he told the family the VFW is planning to install a memorial so that they will be able to honor their son in the town he grew up in.  

While the VFW hasn’t yet completed the memorial site, people are already using the space for events to remember those who have served. The space recently hosted a Quilts of Honor ceremony, and Wenzel believes it is a place that will continue to bring the community together in the future.  

There will be a ribbon cutting ceremony open to the public at the Bigfork VFW to unveil the new location of the Benghazi Memorial at 11:30 a.m. on Sept. 11, followed by a 9/11 remembrance service. The Bigfork VFW is located at 8098 Montana Highway 35. 

Reporter Elsa Ericksen can be reached at 406-758-4459 or [email protected]. If you value local journalism, pledge your support at dailyinterlake.com/support.