In Winterset, the Madison County Freedom Rock was dedicated on Saturday, August 26, 2017, by American Legion Winterset Green Rogers Post 184 and VFW Winterset Post 8142. Ray "Bubba" Sorensen of Greenfield, Iowa, has been painting a Freedom Rock in each of Iowa's 99 counties, and Madison County's was the 64th he created. His paintings thank veterans for their service and sacrifice by making each rock unique and tied to its community as much as possible. Madison County's rock includes the Quilts of Valor Foundation, whose national headquarters are in Winterset and whose volunteers and members make and award quilts to military service persons touched by war, no matter when or where they served; a female veteran draped in a quilt represents the role of women in service to the United States and the welcome home of love and support that a Quilt of Valor symbolizes. It also features George Stout, born in Winterset and a Winterset High School graduate of 1915, who earned degrees from the University of Iowa and Harvard, served in World War I and World War II, and became an art conservation expert and museum director who led the World War II U.S. Army unit known as the Monuments Men in protecting, recovering, and repatriating millions of artworks and other cultural treasures plundered by the Nazis. Another figure is Glenn Martin, born in Macksburg, Iowa, who opened his first airplane factory in Los Angeles in 1912, merged with the original Wright Company in 1916 to form the Wright-Martin Aircraft Company, later created the Glenn L Martin Company, and helped shape a business lineage that became Martin-Marietta Corporation and later Lockheed-Martin, while producing military aircraft including the Martin B-10 Bomber. Although not a veteran, John Wayne is included for his iconic war movie roles and patriotism; his four likenesses represent The Fighting Seabees, The Sands of Iwo Jima, The Green Berets, and Flying Leathernecks, alongside his words, "My hope and prayer is that everyone know and love our country for what she really is and what she stands for." Also shown in black and white to match the POW/MIA flag are four Madison County young men who were prisoners of war: Carl Hircock of Winterset, an Army private captured by the Germans in February 1943 at the Battle of Faid Pass in Tunisia, Africa, and held for over two years; Larry Spencer of Earlham, a Navy lieutenant commander captured on February 18, 1966, when his F-4B Phantom II was brought down, then held for seven years as the 67th POW in the Hanoi Hilton before release in 1973; Eddie Benge of Winterset, an Army private also captured by the Germans in February 1943 at the Battle of Faid Pass and held for over two years; and Don Thomas of Macksburg, a Marine private captured in the Philippine Islands during World War II in the Pacific Theater who survived the Bataan Death March and was a Japanese POW for three and a half years.