WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (AP) _ A more than century-old northern Indiana nursing home that serves veterans now boasts a monument honoring the nation's soldiers.

The metal monument was recently erected outside the Indiana Veterans' Home in West Lafayette. It's nearly 20 feet tall and depicts an inverted rifle stuck in a pair of boots, topped by a helmet and with a dog tag hanging from the rifle.

WLFI-TV reports (http://bit.ly/1mf66vF) Mark Kuszmaul spent three years welding it together from sheet metal before donating it to the home.

Kuszmaul isn't a veteran but his father served in World War II. He says he hopes his creation “will remind a lot of people what they sacrificed.''

The Veterans' Home has been serving veterans since 1896.