On Veterans Day 2025, a life‑size bronze statue of an Iroquois warrior sculpted by John Hare was unveiled as part of the Women Veterans monuments at Veterans Park on Okaloosa Island, an event speaker said at the Destin Fort Walton Beach Convention Center.

The speaker said hundreds attended the ceremony and described the park as a 21‑acre site on Choctawhatchee Bay that includes 1,700 linear feet of ADA‑accessible paved sidewalks and wooden boardwalks. The speaker credited County Commissioner Carolyn Newcomer Kechel with advocating to preserve the park’s natural beauty while creating a space to recognize women who served in the U.S. military.

The speaker noted that on Nov. 11, 2021, Okaloosa County unveiled monuments honoring eight women veterans and said four additional sculptures have been created and “will be added” to the park. The latest addition, the speaker said, is meant to recognize indigenous contributions during the War of 1812.

The ceremony also highlighted historical records for Native women who received military pensions. The speaker named Polly Cooper, Susan Jacob, Dinah John, Julia John and Dolly Shenandoah and said that although some pension records list them as cooks, "many served in combat alongside their husbands as a matter of necessity," a characterization attributed to the event speaker. The speaker added that the new statue is representative rather than an individually specific portrait because no paintings or photographs of these women from their service era are known to exist.

"A life‑sized bronze statue sculpted by renowned artist John Hare was proudly unveiled," the event speaker said at the ceremony. The remarks closed with the phrase "Proud American."

Organizers emphasized the memorial's dual aims: to recognize women’s military service across history and to preserve the park’s natural setting for visitors. The transcript does not specify who organized the statue commission or the monument funders, and earlier demographic claims about state rankings were presented by the speaker as an assertion rather than supported by cited sources.

No formal votes or policy actions were recorded in the transcript. The event is described in the transcript as a public Veterans Day commemoration and unveiling; next procedural steps for additional installations were not specified in the record.