Some say 'da' to Russian Monument

FILE - In this March 12, 2018 file photo, a model of the "Project Zebra" memorial stands in the Arts of the Albemarle building in Elizabeth City, N.C.  The monument to Russian soldiers killed while training in the United States during World War II may still find a home in America even after a North Carolina city rejected it because of tensions between the two countries.  (AP Photo/Martha Waggoner)
FILE - In this March 12, 2018 file photo, a model of the "Project Zebra" memorial stands in the Arts of the Albemarle building in Elizabeth City, N.C. The monument to Russian soldiers killed while training in the United States during World War II may still find a home in America even after a North Carolina city rejected it because of tensions between the two countries. (AP Photo/Martha Waggoner)

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - A monument honoring a secret World War II spy mission could still find a home in the United States after a North Carolina town rejected the statue because of current tensions between the U.S. and Russia.

The Military Aviation Museum in Virginia has offered a place for it. So has a coastal North Carolina funeral home owner.

And the co-chairman of a Russian-American commission on POWs and MIAs said the group is looking for locations other than Elizabeth City for the 25-ton bronze monument that would honor Project Zebra, after the city council there said no to putting it in a local park.

"We're willing to continue to find some place to honor Project Zebra and the cooperation we had in World War II," said retired Gen. Robert Foglesong, co-chair of the U.S.-Russia Joint Commission on POW/MIAs. "The ideal location would have been in Elizabeth City, but we'll consider other locations."

At least one other Elizabeth City option remains a possibility.

David Twiford, owner of Twiford Funeral Homes in Elizabeth City, has offered a spot on his property.

"I think it loses its meaning if it's not in Elizabeth City," he said. "The airmen died here, not up in Virginia."

The aviation museum, which has offered space for the monument, is in Pungo, Virginia, just 50 miles (80 kilometers) from Elizabeth City.

The monument's location was thrown up in the air in March, when a newly elected city council refused to sign a memorandum of understanding for it. The new panel includes some incumbents who voted yes in 2017.

The joint commission wanted the monument in an as-yet undeveloped park in Elizabeth City because a top-secret WWII operation was based at U.S. Coast Guard station there. Declassified just a few years ago, Project Zebra helped train about 300 Soviet aviators to find German submarines and bomb them.

One night in 1945, three Russians, a Ukrainian and a Canadian were killed when a seaplane bound for Russia crashed in the Pasquotank River. Their sacrifice was never publicly recognized and the crash was forgotten for decades.

After Project Zebra was declassified in 2013, efforts slowly developed to honor it with a monument, which would include three figures - one each of Soviet, U.S. and United Kingdom aviators.