The service of the state's Korean War servicemen, 314 of whom gave their lives and 80 of whom are still MIA, was "honored and recognized in a ceremony Monday that unveiled and dedicated the state’s new Korean War Memorial sculpture," according to a statement from the Senate press office.

“It has been five long years since many of us embarked on the journey to create a lasting tribute to Connecticut’s Korean War veterans, a tribute that will stand in the concourse between the Legislative Office Building and the Capitol,” state Sen. Gayle Slossberg, D-Milford, shown, former co-chairwoman and current vice chairwoman of the General Assembly’s Select Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, said in the statement. “And while some of us have been working and waiting for this day for five years, most of you here have been working and waiting for this day for a lot longer.”

More than 250 veterans, servicemen and women, their families and public officials, attended a ceremony hosted by Slossberg in honor of more than 30,000 Connecticut veterans who served in active duty in Korea.

The sculpture was an idea of Korean War vet Mark Gordon and created by artist Clayton Fuller of Massachusetts, the statement said.