The community of Anacortes boasts a new memorial dedicated to veterans of the U.S. military. This is a photograph of Anacortes High School Veterans Memorial Plaza, conceived by a local committee that worked with architect and designer Brooks Middleton. The designer said: “There are five plates to represent the five armed forces. I used rusted steel because it’s hard and cold, raw and basic. Those are the elements of war. I wanted it to be in your face, to make people a bit uneasy. Another intentional element is the gabion retaining wall. At one level, it’s a cage filled with stones, often for military use. But on another level, it represents one unified country made up of many individual minds. It’s what makes us great.”