Published: August 29, 2008 01:25 am      

Third panel to decide fate of West Virginia woman veterans statue

CHARLESTON — Nearly 10 years and two wars later, West Virginia is revisiting plans to erect a monument to honor its female military veterans.

A third committee since 1999 will consider possible locations for the statue, including the state Capitol grounds near the West Virginia Veterans Memorial.

The veteran-heavy panel could also reconsider the design chosen by the project’s first committee, which had also included veterans.

“I don’t think anything is off the table, but I think the focus of this committee is to find a place for this statue,” said Joe Thornton, spokesman for the Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety.

That statue, of a female solider in fatigues, has been nearly complete since 2003. That’s when the design drew critics including older veterans who said it the woman depicted should wear a skirt to look more feminine.

But the fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan has since increased the ranks of the state’s veterans with younger women, and they may have a different view of the design.

“I don’t think that’s anything that’s been discussed,” Thornton said of the changing demographics. “The committee will be in charge of determining whether it is representative.”

According to federal figures, the number of West Virginia’s female veterans has nearly doubled to 11,259 since Charleston artist P. Joseph Mullins was commissioned to sculpt the statue in 1999.

“Every day, my position becomes stronger and theirs becomes weaker,” Mullins said Thursday, referring to critics. “This piece of sculpture looks to the future.”

Mullins designed the existing Veterans Memorial, dedicated in 1995, and carved its four statues. Each depicts a fighting man from a different branch of the military, and each represents one of the four major conflicts of the 20th Century.

Both the memorial statues and that of the female veteran are highly detailed and in combat attire. The Marine, for instance, is bare-armed with a Vietnam-era flak vest. The woman statue depicts a woman clad in a T-shirt, fatigue pants, combat boots, field cap and an equipment belt with pouches.

“I treated her exactly the same way as I treated the men,” Mullins said. “I don’t do parade-ground soldiers.”

Ready for bronzing, the statue remains stored at Mullins’ Charleston studio. He balked at taking that final step in late 2006, when state officials proposed placing it at the new Veterans Nursing Home in Clarksburg.

“I can’t imagine intelligent people not putting it on the Capitol grounds,” said Mullins, who is an Army veteran. “I’m very hopeful that this will play out in a very good and fair way, and that everybody will be satisfied.”

Mullins will choose two of the new committee’s members. One other must be a female veteran. The state Veterans’ Council, an advisory group, will have a pair of picks as will the American Legion and the Veterans of Foreign Wars. Remaining members of the 13-person panel are divided between the state Division of Culture and History and the public.

West Virginia has the country’s eighth-largest percentage of veterans in its population, according to 2007 figures from the U.S. Census and U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.