Oregon Honors War Veterans on Six Highways

Oregon has created 6 new veterans memorial highways honoring nearly one half million veterans who served and the 21,000 who became casualties during 5 major wars over the last 100 years from WWI to the present.

These are WWI, WWII, Korean War, Vietnam War and Persian Gulf/Afghanistan and Iraq Wars. The 6 highways include a Purple Heart Trail and extend across Oregon from Oregon's borders with California, Idaho and Washington.

Two of the highways are a first in the nation - Purple Heart Trail on Interstate 5 connecting Purple Heart Trails on I-5 in Washington and California. Thereby creating the first Purple Heart Trail across our nation in any direction.

The Persian Gulf, Afghanistan and Iraq Veterans Highway on US 101 on Oregon's beautiful coast is the first of a kind also. Each border to border highway is at least 300 miles long with 10-18 signs installed for a total of 67 signs.

It took 9 years to create the veterans highways - 3 bills before the legislature and raising $72,000 to pay for fabricating the signs and installing them.

Many donors and the Oregon legislature made this legacy project managed by the non-profit Bend Heroes Foundation possible.