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Families of the local service members featured on Albert Lea’s Freedom Rock gathered at the rock on Monday to honor their loved ones on Veterans Day.

Don and Deb Goodnature, parents of Corey Goodnature, who is featured on the front of the rock, which faces College Street, said they were honored and humbled that the monument includes their son and that the artist did a great job of depicting him.

“It’s really amazing how nice everything turned out,” Don Goodnature said.

Chief Warrant Officer Corey Goodnature was killed in 2005 when his company’s MH-47 Chinook helicopter was shot down in Afghanistan while attempting to rescue missing Navy SEALS. Next to Goodnature on the rock is the crest for the Night Stalkers, which he was a part of, and a Battlefield Cross, also known as a Soldier’s Cross, which is a memorial marker for a soldier who has been killed — made up of a soldier’s rifle stuck into the ground or the soldier’s boots, with the helmet on top.   Above Goodnature on the rock is a helicopter similar to the one he would have been in — even down to the number on the aircraft.

Don Goodnature said they spoke with artist Ray “Bubba” Sorensen II two or three times ahead of the start of the project, but they didn’t know exactly what Sorensen had planned beforehand.

Sorensen started Freedom Rocks in Iowa with a 12-foot-tall boulder near the small town of Menlo, Iowa. In 1999, Sorensen painted a “thank you” to veterans on the boulder and has continued to honor veterans by donating his time for new murals on this boulder every May for Memorial Day, drawing in people each year to see what he has created. To expand this message further, Sorensen said he felt compelled to do more and set out in hopes of every county in Iowa having a Freedom Rock of their own. He has achieved this goal and has since painted others in other states.

Albert Lea’s Freedom Rock was made possible through the local group of American Legion Riders, who fundraised for the effort. In addition to the rock itself, they organized the construction of a small gazebo structure over the rock for protection, and sidewalks were built connecting it to the already existing Veterans Memorial.

“For them to do this … I don’t know how to thank them,” Deb Goodnature said. “It took a lot of work.”

In addition to the Goodnatures, the families of the six Levisen brothers, who are featured on the back of the rock on the side facing the courthouse, also gathered to view the rock and honor their loved ones.

Myron Levisen, the only one of the six brothers who is still living, said his brothers, Thorvald, Arnold, Earl, Donald and Paul, all served in World War II and all returned home. Myron said he served in the 1950s.

He said they got involved in the rock when Sorensen was brainstorming ideas for the rock and was looking for stories about veterans. The family submitted a story that published in the Tribune in 1995 by writer Ed Shannon.

He said it was quite an honor to be included on it, especially for his brothers, who served in combat.

He and his brothers’ families from the area, as well as the Twin Cities and Rochester, came down to the rock on Monday.

“It’s really something,” Levisen said of how the rock turned out.