Sometimes, U.S. Navy veteran Watson Klopp sheds a tear when he looks across the street at his former neighbor’s home.
He becomes emotional when he thinks of his neighbor, hunting buddy and friend John Eisenhauer, who died at his home on Grace Avenue in Swatara Township on April 30, 2020.
Another touch point is when he sees Eisenhauer’s “freedom garden,” which honors the men and women like Klopp who served the nation to preserve our freedom and democracy. Seeing the display, especially when he drives down the lane from his home, sparks deep emotions in Klopp, who served in the U.S. Navy from 1959 to 1963.
At the far end of the Eisenhauer property, the garden features four miniature cement soldiers positioned beneath a flag pole and an American flag. A fifth statue salutes the flag and his fellow servicemen.
The four soldiers guarding the flag represent different eras throughout America’s history while the saluting serviceman sits off to the side in a grassy area. A miniature Statue of Liberty sits in a one-acre pond next to the garden.
Yet another soldier, this one kneeling over a cross, is in front of a rose bush by the steps of LuAnn Eisenhauer’s home along with a pair of her late husband John’s boots.
“It brings tears to my eyes, let me say it that way,” said Klopp about Eisenhauer’s tribute to his nation and the memory of his best friend. “(Also), our world is horrible in the way that we treat our soldiers. Some are homeless. They commit suicide. We don’t treat our soldiers the way they should be treated.”
The soldier kneeling over the cross is the one that elicits the most emotion in Klopp.
An online search reveals the purpose of that style of monument is to show honor and respect for the dead at the battle site. The practice started during World War I, as a sign of respect for those that gave their lives in combat during wartime.
Today, it shows respect for the dead among the still-living troop members.
“John passed away at home and I was the one who found him,” said Klopp. “When I look over there, it isn’t easy. The one (statue) at the steps, to tell you the truth, I don’t know why I can hardly look at it. It’s probably because I can picture John doing that. It is also a reminder that some paid the ultimate sacrifice in service to their nation.”
LuAnn said John always wanted to enter the military but a health condition early in life prevented him from doing so. He had Crohn’s disease and several physical disabilities during his lifetime.
“He wanted to join the military but was not able to,” said LuAnn. “He was always patriotic, loved his country and wanted to pay homage to America and our freedoms. He built it to show everyone that he loved his country.”
Klopp has fond memories of helping John build a majority of the monument.
“We went to Cracker Barrel (next to Cabela’s along Route 78) and there was this statue there. Anyway, we have a small car, a Kia,” recalled Klopp. “He said, ‘Do you think we can haul it? I think I’ll have to go home and get my truck.’ I said, ‘We’ll get it in. If you buy it, we’ll get it in.’ So he bought it and then we put this thing down there.”
Then there are a few not-as-pleasant memories but ones that are still cherished and will never be forgotten.
Klopp said although they are small in size, moving the statues was a two-person operation since they are concrete and are quite heavy. The placement of the Statue of Liberty, which sits on a cement base on top of the pond’s overflow system, was also a major chore.
“I had no idea it was as heavy as it was,” said Klopp about Lady Liberty, which he believes is made of aluminum. “So we put it in a boat and let me tell you, that was an operation, putting it in a flat-bottom boat. Every time we’d go to lift this thing up, the boat would move, so we had to tie the boat to the concrete. We then finally got it, the two of us, up on the platform. When we got it up there, we drilled holes in the concrete and secured it.”
Sometime later the statue became detached, fell into the pond and had to be reset on its base. The two men took precautions to ensure the statue would remain in place once it was back on its pedestal.
“It fell down in the water and he said, ‘I gotta get it out of there,’ and I said, ‘We’ll get that outta there,’” Klopp reminisced. “I had a buddy who had a crane and thought we’ll put something around it and get it out of there. I said, ‘Well, we’ll try it first.’ So we hoisted that thing up onto the boat and it’s heavy – especially on a boat. You’re not stable, you move one way or the other and the next thing you know you are in the water. So we redrilled the holes and put anchors in it to keep it in place.”
Some details of the project are fuzzy in the minds of those who were involved with it. For instance, no one is sure what year the garden was built or where one of the six statues was purchased.
What is known, however, is that most of the statues were bought at Country Craft Mill in Lickdale. LuAnn said John and store owner Kevin Myers were classmates at Northern Lebanon High School.
The statues, which were later painted white by John except for the saluting soldier, which is painted blue, are naturally gray in color and weigh about 150 pounds each, according to Myers.
John’s four statues below the flag include a Colonial soldier, two from the Civil War, and one that appears to be from the World War II era.
“For the most part, these statues are something that I normally sell at my store,” said Myers, who said he’s been in business for 36 years. “I think I did look (research) a little bit for him. I believe this was something that he always wanted to do there. I think he thought it would look nice with it being right there next to his pond.”
As strangers pass by the monument, which sits along Grace Avenue a few miles south of Jonestown, some stop to ask LuAnn about the military-based monument and the water lilies in the pond that provide a resting place for the many frogs that live there.
“I just recently had three people randomly stop in wanting some of the water lilies,” said LuAnn. “I told them you have to dig them out because they are rooted in the pond. They wanted them for their own ponds.”
There was also a recent visit by an unknown Lebanon resident who started driving by her house since the bridge on Route 72 is being replaced.
“He said he drives by here every day to go to the gym because 72 is closed,” LuAnn said. “He saw the statues and he noticed the flag was tattered and so he brought me a flag.”
That kind gesture from a complete stranger moved LuAnn.
“It was pretty overwhelming for me because I had ordered a flag and just didn’t have it yet,” she said. “He said he’s not a veteran but he loves his country and he just wanted to do this for me.
“It was just overwhelming because you don’t hear about people doing nice things anymore. I was just kind of shocked but it gives you a good feeling to know there still are nice people out there.”
LuAnn said the stranger offered to take the tattered flag, but she told him that she had a neighbor who was a veteran and he would take care of it for her.
“I gave the old flag the dignified ending it deserved – I took it and burned it by myself,” said Klopp, who also recently worked with LuAnn and another neighbor to put about a ton of whitish/yellowish river rocks around the base of the flagpole of the four soldiers and the saluting one. Previously, those areas were dirt.
LuAnn appreciates Klopp’s friendship with her husband and the assistance he’s provided over the years with the monument because John was passionate about the military.
Read More: Meet Lebanon County’s milk bottle expert, John Eisenhauer
LebTown asked LuAnn what that 4th of July meant to John. She said he didn’t set off fireworks, have picnics, dress in red, white and blue or do anything else out of the ordinary for the holiday.
But there is a reason for that.
“John didn’t do anything necessarily special on July 4th to celebrate the holiday,” said LuAnn. “That’s because he celebrated the holiday every day of the year in his heart.”
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