Mini-Vietnam Wall and Statue of Liberty

Truth or Consequences, New Mexico

A well-maintained Veterans' Memorial Park stands next to a small, local military museum, and features a number of extra-effort monuments.

There's a half-scale Vietnam Wall replica with the names of all the dead American soldiers from that conflict. An old artillery piece points westward. A walkway cuts back and forth in the shape of a large star, interspersed with plaques acknowledging armed encounters, from the earth-shaking to the obscure ("Invasion of Panama - 'Operation Just Cause' - Deaths: 23"). At the star's center is a painted sculpture of the world atop a column, an America eagle above that, seemingly ready to claw where duty next calls.

A combined Independence Day 1776 and 9/11 tribute, made from a small fiberglass Statue of Liberty holding aloft a street lamp bulb, helps dispel the darkness of terrorism from a town named for a game show.