It wasn’t the typical ribbon cutting ceremony.

Instead of standing in front of some building, Heyward Matthews, a professor of oceanography at St. Petersburg College, wielded the oversized scissors in the water and cut a ribbon strung between two boats.

That’s because Matthews was dedicating the opening of the nation’s first underwater dive memorial honoring veterans, located 40 feet below the surface 10 miles off the coast of Dunedin Beach, Florida.

Matthews has been pushing the idea for the “Circle of Heroes" for almost 10 years.

"(I) just wanted something that was going to be permanent and also wanted something that was going to honor our veterans in a unique and different way,” Mathews told the Military Times in June.

In addition to honoring veterans, Mathews would like the memorial to be a therapeutic dive site for disabled veterans suffering from post traumatic stress disorder and depression. He also wants it to serve as an artificial reef in order to help sustain marine life in the gulf.

The memorial currently features 12 life-size concrete statues depicting men and women from each of the five service branches. The statues will be arranged in a 100-foot circle facing a pentagon shaped memorial containing bronze emblems of each of the five service branches. The statues’ 2,000 pound bases also contain plaques with names of service members.