Goat mascot joins South Valley veterans group’s memorial planning meeting

A goat named Eileen the Queen joined Honoring Veterans at a memorial planning meeting in Dolores Huerta Gateway Park, bringing red, white and blue color to a South Valley gathering built around a serious job. The group is preparing for a memorial event while also helping veterans’ families at no cost after a veteran dies.

The meeting unfolded in a public park that has become a familiar civic space for South Valley residents. Dolores Huerta Gateway Park was renamed in honor of labor and civil-rights activist Dolores Huerta on April 1, 2017, and it has continued to serve as a place for county and community gatherings. That setting fit a group like Honoring Veterans, which relies on local relationships and volunteer effort more than a formal institution.

Eileen the Queen was not just a novelty. Her appearance drew on a long Navy tradition that gives the goat a place in military history. Goats were once kept aboard ships for fresh milk and meat, then became morale-boosting mascots. The Navy’s first goat mascot was El Cid aboard the cruiser New York, and the tradition gained momentum after the 1893 Army-Navy football game. The Naval History and Heritage Command also notes that “goat locker” remains a Navy nickname for chief petty officers’ mess and berthing.

That history gave the South Valley mascot a layer of meaning beyond the photo opportunity. Eileen the Queen’s patriotic outfit made the meeting feel celebratory, but the group’s work stayed centered on remembrance, burial honors and family support. Honoring Veterans has made that mission part of its public identity, especially for families who are dealing with the loss of a veteran and need help navigating the next steps without added cost.

Bernalillo County has recently seen that kind of memorial work on a larger scale. On Sept. 19, 2024, the county’s Forgotten Heroes Funeral Program laid 42 unclaimed veterans’ cremains to rest with military burial honors. County records say 34 of the veterans were from Bernalillo County and four were women veterans. The county said funeral services and urn engraving were provided at no additional cost through Director’s Choice Mortuary, with the program run alongside the New Mexico Department of Veterans’ Services and the New Mexico National Guard.

For South Valley veterans, the goat may have been the first thing people noticed. The lasting image is the one behind it: neighbors, volunteers and veterans gathering in a park named for Dolores Huerta to keep memorial planning visible, practical and close to home.