Site Chosen for Disabled Vets Memorial

A small site near the Capitol and the National Mall won approval Thursday from the National Capital Memorial Commission for a memorial honoring the nation’s 2.3 million disabled veterans.

Former Veterans Affairs Secretary Jesse Brown said the monument, to be situated about two blocks west of the Capitol and across from the U.S. Botanic Garden, should be in a place where members of Congress will see it often.

“As they consider military actions and critical national security issues, this shrine will provide a reminder of war’s true human cost,” he said.

Broadway performer Lois Pope began lobbying for the memorial in 1996 after reflecting on her experience singing before veterans at a rehabilitation center in New York City during the closing days of the Vietnam War.

“It was my first clue what the cost of war really is, in the bleakest of human terms,” she said.

Despite opposition from the National Park Service and the Interior Department, legislation approving the memorial and exempting it from the Commemorative Works Act was passed by Congress and signed into law last October.

The 1986 act forbids erecting a memorial to a group or individual until the 25th anniversary of the related event or death of the last surviving member of the group.

The disabled veterans memorial still needs approval from the National Capital Planning Commission and the Commission of Fine Arts.

The District of Columbia supported the memorial on the understanding that it would consist of gardens rather than a large sculptured monument.

Once a design competition is held, construction of the memorial using privately donated funds could begin in three years, supporters said.