NEWPORT, R.I. (WPRI) — At Fort Adams State Park, volunteers are carefully lining up more than thousands of combat boots in a large grid.

Each boot is adorned with an American flag and the name of a military member who’s been killed in action in the post-9/11 Global War on Terror.

“This is the full measure of the cost of freedom,” said Erik Wallin from Operation Stand Down Rhode Island , which has been putting on the annual display since 2015.

The Boots on the Ground for Heroes Memorial pays tribute to more than 7,000 servicemembers who made the ultimate sacrifice, and sadly, it grows bigger every year. Five more boots were added this year for three soldiers killed in Jordan and two Navy SEALs who died during a mission off the coast of Africa.

“They left their loved ones to serve our country and unfortunately never returned. That’s what Memorial Day is all about,” OSDRI’s Timothy Ruel told 12 News on Tuesday.

“When you come and you kneel in front of a boot and you actually read that this boot represents a person … a person that’s died, that is no longer here … someone has lost a loved one, it just has more impact on you,” volunteer Gayle Aguiar said.

The public is invited to stop by this Memorial Day Weekend and remember those who laid down their lives in service of our country.

The memorial will be open from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, then from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Monday. A formal ceremony honoring local Gold Star families will be held Friday at 6:30 p.m.

OSDRI said this year’s display will also feature the Invisible Scars of War Monument, which recognizes the pain and sacrifice of military members who suffered from conditions like PTSD and depression before taking their own lives.

The display was located at Roger Williams Park in Providence for the first three years, then it was moved to Fort Adams in Newport. Last Veterans Day, it moved out of state for the first time when the boots were set up on the field at Gillette Stadium .

Watch: Organizers discuss the Boots on the Ground for Heroes Memorial

On Wednesday, June 5, we’ll be marking the 80th anniversary of D-Day by looking back at the Allied invasion of Normandy and how it turned the tide of World War II. Watch D-Day: The Greatest Victory at 10 p.m. on the CW Providence.

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