New signs are up on the Highway 169 bridge over 81st Street, commemorating Jared Shoemaker, a Tulsa police officer and Marine corporal killed in combat in Iraq in 2006.
Ada State Senator Susan Paddack originally introduced the bill to put up the signs, but she says she asked Tulsa Senator Mike Mazzei to sponsor it, so that the signs would be near Shoemaker’s family.
“It’s the right thing to do, to put the bridge where his family can drive across it every day,” Paddack said.
“Every time you cross the bridge, say a little prayer of thanks for Jared, and for all those who serve our country,” she said.
The idea for the memorial came from Corporal Cody Hill, the only surviving member of Shoemaker’s patrol, hit by a roadside bomb on the day Shoemaker was killed.
He said he was thrilled to see the process, which took several months, end in success.
“It’s a phenomenal deal for a great guy, a great Marine, a great man,” Hill said. “If anybody deserves it, he does.”