WILTON — The town's war memorial has a new monument commemorating those who served in some of the nation's modern conflicts thanks to the efforts of a new Eagle Scout.

Last week, Jonathan Schultz, 18, who is about to graduate from Wilton-Lyndeborough Cooperative High School, became an Eagle Scout after the monument he has been working on since 2009 was installed at Wilton's war memorial park.

A Boy Scout since second grade, Schultz went into his Eagle Scout project with the goal of naming all the men and women who fought in places like Grenada, Panama, Kosovo, Lebanon, Bosnia and Iraq during Desert Storm.

The names of local folk who went to battle from the Civil War to Vietnam have been memorialized in bronze and granite for years in the memorial park, but Schultz thought it was important to recognize those who fought in lesser known conflicts.

With the help of the Board of Selectmen and the Bent-Burke American Legion Post No. 10, Schultz raised the $3,500 he needed to erect the new monument, and worked tirelessly trying to track down the names of those who deserved a place on the new bronze plaque.

The search for names was arduous — in some cases the members of the military were no longer in town – but Schultz was able to track down 22 names to add to the monument. Medlyn Monument in Milford, which created the other monuments that line the park, created the new monument as well and donated the installation service for Shultz.

“It turned out beautiful,” said Schultz, who is heading to Western New England University in Springfield, Mass., to study mechanical engineering in the fall.

At the end of April, not long before his 18th birthday — the cutoff date to have his Eagle project done — Schultz saw the monument get settled into its new home overlooking the Souhegan River.

“There was this amazing feeling that I was finally achieving this really big goal that I'd set a long time ago,” he said.”