Couple creates dog tag memorial for fallen soldiers at Minnesota apple orchard

BECKER, Minn. (WTVQ) — A touching memorial at an apple tree farm in Becker, Minnesota, to honor fallen soldiers and their loved ones.

Photojournalist David Porter shows us the couple who created it.

“Every time we come here we go around all of them straighten them out, a sign of respect, you know, dress right dress is the military. So they still have to be dress right dress, you know, even though they’ve served their country and died doing it.”

“We’ve been doing it twice a year. See this one, the red stripes ended up turning into orange so it has to be replaced,” said Linda Hoffman.

“Tags always need to be changed out. Flags always need to be changed out. And I retired as a chief warrant officer. No regrets, no regrets at all. It was a great career,” said Mark Hoffman.

“This is my brother Lee’s apple orchard, the tree farm and he said, fine, go ahead with the memorial. It’s a beautiful area, it’s peaceful,” said Linda.

“You know when they say rest in peace, this is it,” said Mark.

“Our son was stationed in Afghanistan and then Mark was over in Iraq. They both have lost their comrades over there,” said Linda.

“This is Richard Ferguson right here…was supposed to retire and said I want to go one more time and never came back. I had served with him for 15 years. He was a friend of mine. Yeah. You can see how many squares this takes up. It’s 3-4 tags per square. We have eight states, we need to replace. Now we process the tags in Vermont and then we bring them here…stainless steel. A person came out to talk to us about it and the wind was blowing that day and the first thing he said when he got out of the car was holy cow, listen to them chime,” said Mark. “So it’s a pretty emotional reaction…kinda makes the hair on the back of your neck go up. Even as many times as I’ve heard it, all the names on the tags are listed. Last name, first name in alphabetical order. So there’s a row in a line for every one of the names. We’re working on the book that’s going to document where all these tags are on the fence. So when a person comes out to see the memorial and if they’re looking for a comrade or a loved one, they can go to the book and it makes it really easy to locate”

“Stabilize it in place,” said Linda.

“There’s many memorials out there. This is my personal…way you’re saying…thanks for your sacrifice. Thanks to those families who lost loved ones,” said Mark.

“Isn’t just the soldier, it’s the whole family,” said Linda.

“The sacrifice for the family is huge. It really is. Each one is a family. Each one is an American. It’s a lot of work. But that’s okay. It’s a living memorial…we’ll be at this until we’re gone. It’s worth the effort. Absolutely,” said Mark.

Mark served the United States in the Special Forces for 27 years and had three deployments in Iraq.

His son also served seven deployments in the Iraq and Afghan wars.