Yeary, a local attorney, served with the 82nd Airborne Division and in Vietnam in the late 1960s. In an effort to counter some of the antiwar protests earlier in 2003, he organized a campaign to place yellow memorial ribbons around town.

That eventually led to a larger effort to create the soldier's memorial on a then-unnamed 13-acre town park.

He said he was hanging ribbons with his 11-year-old daughter Laura when a younger lawyer asked him what the yellow ribbons meant.

"At that time, I thought, here's a young man who's lived in this country for 27 years and who's trained in law,' he said. "If he doesn't know, what about other young people?"

The next stop he decided to make was at the Washington County Public Library in the hope that young people coming in with their parents would stop to ask what the ribbon symbolized.

However, workers there told him they would have to get a legal opinion before he could hang a ribbon on their sign. He heard the same thing when he went to post one at the county administration building.

"I thought common sense would prevail that morning, but apparently, it did not," he said.

Yeary was told he would have to introduce a resolution before the Board of Supervisors before he could post the ribbon. Frustrated, he organized local veterans to go before the board to explain the importance of supporting the soldiers fighting in Iraq.

County officials relaxed their stance before the meeting, but the veterans initiative still had momentum.

One day, while talking to Korean War veteran and prisoner of war Jim Beavers at the Kroger shopping center, Yeary took note of the unnamed and largely unused town park over his friend's shoulder.

It was then that he came up with idea to make the park a veterans' memorial, he said.

The Town Council later agreed, and the veterans' group was able to get donations to pay for a sign there and two flagpoles.

Plans are to erect more flagpoles to fly the symbols of the five branches of service and a prisoner of war/missing in action flag.

Yeary said he envisions more memorials in the park, be it to certain units, figures of wars. He said he'd also like to see a history museum to encompass not only military history but that of the town and county.

The park's recent designation as an arboretum will help memorialize soldiers because folks will be able to dedicate a tree in honor of a loved one, he said.

"We could also have a place there in honor of peace," he said. "This is not a war park. We've got to remember, though, that it takes soldiers to secure that peace."

Yeary has a love of history. He has helped with extensive renovations to The Tavern, the oldest building in town and what some historians call one of the most historically accurate buildings in the mid-Atlantic, as well as his own office.

"We need always to be mindful of where we are today because so many in our lives have been stepping stones for us," he said. "We should be stepping stones for those who follow us."