Bill would make memorial signs to honor some fallen heroes easier to request

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) -- Bend resident Dick Tobiason is no stranger to advocating for the veterans community.

"What this bill does, it expands on what we've done before to honor veterans who were killed in combat," Tobiason, a retired Army lieutenant colonel and two-tour Vietnam War veteran, told NewsChannel 21 on Tuesday.

Tobiason, chairman of the Bend Heroes Foundation, recently championed an effort to designate U.S. Highway 26 a POW-MIA memorial highway all the way across Oregon, honoring the state's prisoners of war and those missing in action.

"Those signs are generic for all POWs -- 923 Oregon POWs ,997 missing in action still. So what about the civilians?" he said.

Tobiason said it's currently a complicated process for civilian military contractors' families who want to request a memorial road marker from the Oregon Department of Transportation, like some of the ones around Central Oregon.

"The old process (is) where the family has to request a concurrent resolution,” Tobiason said, “because otherwise, it puts ODOT in the position of having to make a judgement: Was this body returned to Oregon? Were they properly accounted for?"

But Senate Bill 441, sponsored by state Sen. Tim Knopp, R-Bend, states that a fallen hero's memorial sign can now be constructed if “the individual killed in the line of duty was formerly designated as either a prisoner of war or unaccounted for by the Defense POW/MIA.”

Tobiason said he expects the Senate bill and similar one in the Oregon House will be merged. And he said he feels good about its chances.

"Senator Manning is 24-year Army veteran, and he is going to make the Senate bill pass," he said.