Marine Vet Makes Statues of Fallen Soldiers for their Families Free of Charge

A Marine veteran is on a mission to honor fallen soldiers.

Cliff Leonard, who served in Vietnam, uses his artistic skills to create sculptures of Marines and Navy corpsmen who have been killed in Iraq or Afghanistan.

He started with a fallen Marine from Jacksonville, Florida, in 2010, and then he decided to do all the Marines and corpsmen in the city.

He doesn’t charge anything for the busts, instead taking “payment” in honoring the fallen and giving their families something to keep their memories alive.

“I just look at these guys as my little brothers,” Leonard said. “And I would like for their memory to live on as long as possible.”

Leonard’s most recent sculpture was of Private First Class Christopher Cobb, who was killed in a gun battle in Iraq in 2004.

His mother, Sheila Cobb, said the bust gave her a piece of her heart back.

“Thank you for doing that,” she tearfully told Leonard, looking at the statue. “That’s his nose and everything.”

Leonard has approximately 35 more statues to go in Florida.