IOWA COUNTY, Wis. -- In Iowa County, a small resting place for U.S. soldiers has taken on national significance following a first-of-its-kind Memorial Day dedication.

In April, local members of the Wiccan religion won a decade-long fight to get their symbol, the pentacle, included on veteran grave markers with many other religious symbols, WISC-TV reported.

Circle Sanctuary, a Wiccan group based in Barneveld, sued the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to add the pentacle to the list in 2005, and won that battle just a month ago.

On Monday, members said that they wanted their loved ones to be recognized for what they gave, as who they are.

The road to a wooded cemetery near Barneveld has been a long one for some in the Wiccan religion.

"It's very much a sad day when grieving widows have to sue their government to get elected officials and presidential appointed officials who run the government to uphold the constitution," said Rev. Selena Fox, senior minister of Circle Sanctuary.

Those rights, now allow three women, widows of Wiccan veterans, to add a pentacle to the markers of their husbands and give respect to all those that follow them.

"The five-pointed star in the circle represents the elements of nature," said Fox.

Earth, air, fire, water and spirit are a part of how the nature-based religion consecrated the grave markers of three veterans on Monday, WISC-TV reported.

Pfc. Jerome Birnbaum served in Korea and died in 2005. Sgt. Douglas Wilkey served in both Korea and Vietnam. Sgt. Patrick Stewart was the first Wiccan soldier killed in action in Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan.

"In the end, I think he would have been pleased today with how this service is being acknowledged. An acknowledgement that is literally written in stone," said Birnbaum's widow, Karen DePolito, of Utah.

DePolito filed the first request with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to get the Wiccan symbol on her husband's grave marker.

"I hope to lay to rest the tears and the crying and try to remember him for his sacrifice, the strength he gave me to go forth with this quest," said Roberta Stewart, widow of Sgt. Stewart.

Roberta joined the request for the pentacle after her husband was killed in Afghanistan in September 2005.

None of the three veterans buried in Barneveld Monday are from Wisconsin, but because they're members of the Circle Sanctuary network of Wiccans, one of the oldest and largest Wiccan churches in the country, their wives asked that part of their remains be interred and marked on the Iowa County land, WISC-TV reported.

Fox said that about a dozen markers with pentacles have been requested since the lawsuit was settled with the VA in April, and she expects more will be asked for as word spreads of it being allowed.

With the addition of the Wiccan pentacle, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs now allows 39 symbols to be included on headstones and markers, including versions of the Christian cross and symbols of the Muslim and Jewish faiths.