Benghazi Memorial at Bigfork

A bronze eagle with a six-foot wingspan, swooping, fixed to a rock pedestal. Built in 2014 by Bill Thomas, a Ventura County paramedic and firefighter, with Doug Averill. For twelve years it stood on Averill's private elk preserve, behind a locked gate, where the public could not reach it. It was moved in the summer of 2026 to the ground behind the Bigfork VFW and is now open year-round; the ribbon was cut on 11 September 2026. Dedication date of the original 2014 emplacement is not sourced and is left unrecorded.

Where it standsVFW Post 4042, 8098 Montana Highway 35, Bigfork, Montanawithin Bigfork48.07393, -114.08024 · ±75m
Who lies hereNo one lies here
StandingMoved from where it was built
Names4, to be transcribed
1 · Visit

Going there

VFW Post 4042, 8098 Montana Highway 35, Bigfork, Montana.

In the Memorial Garden behind VFW Post 4042, alongside a Twin Towers monument and a Vietnam veterans memorial. The post holds it open to the public 365 days a year, day or night, and it is lit for night viewing. The ground is a veterans post rather than public land, but the public is expressly invited - which was the whole reason for moving it.

2 · Sources

Where this comes from

  • The count of names: 9/11 Honor and Serve Foundation, as of 25 September 2026.