Tribute to troops back standing at attention

Ronnie Ramsey’s tribute to American troops is back on duty.

The Vancouver man recently posted three statues of U.S. service members in front of his home in the Fisher’s Landing area.

While the trio could represent his own family’s three generations of military service, the statues are a salute to all who have served, he said.

Ramsey is a Vietnam veteran, his dad was a U.S. Marine during the Korean War and his daughter, Rheannon, is in the Navy. The Mountain View High School graduate is a sailor on the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln.

There used to be five statues. Two were stolen when Ramsey set up the display a few years ago at his former home in Cascade Park.

The 200-pound pieces of art aren’t easy to wrestle around. Ramsey said it took him about four hours to move the statues from his garage and set them up next to his house on Southeast 34th Street.

“They were secured this time,” he said.

“I will add more soldiers,” Ramsey said. “I want to build a stone wall and make it a permanent structure.”

Ramsey said hundreds of people came by to see the installation at his previous home in Cascade Park.

“I couldn’t believe how many people were touched by it,” he said.