The Iowa Department of Veterans Affairs and the Iowa Veterans Home will honor two Iowa soldiers who lost their lives while serving their country with a special memorial bench dedication on Veterans Day, Wednesday, November 11.
The public dedication ceremony is scheduled for 11:45 a.m. at the entrance of the Sheeler Building on the Iowa Veterans Home campus in Marshalltown. The ceremony will honor Staff Sgt. William Nathaniel Howard of Marshalltown and Staff Sgt. Edgar Brian Torres-Tovar of Des Moines.
Both soldiers served with Troop B, 1st Squadron, 113th Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 34th Infantry Division, Iowa Army National Guard. They were killed in action on December 13, 2025, while deployed in Palmyra, Syria, in support of Operation Inherent Resolve.
The memorial benches were constructed through a partnership with Iowa Prison Industries. Individuals at the Iowa Correctional Institution for Women in Mitchellville and the North Central Correctional Facility in Rockwell City helped build the benches. They were delivered to the Iowa Veterans Home campus on November 6 and installed outside the Sheeler Building…