For WWII Generation, a Memorial for the Ages

In February 1987, at the annual fish fry in Jerusalem Township, Ohio, Roger Durbin shouted a pointed question to his congresswoman: “Why is there no World War II Memorial in Washington that I can take my grandchildren to?”

His request never came to fruition during his lifetime; a tank mechanic in the Army’s 10th Armored Division during World War II, Durbin died in 2000 at age 79. But his question led his congresswoman, Marcy Kaptur, to introduce legislation for the remembrance he sought.

And now, hundreds of thousands of Americans, including Durbin’s grandchildren, will be coming to Washington to honor the 16 million who served in the military during World War II and the millions more who supported them at home -- a last hurrah for the men and women in their 80s and 90s who saved the world from fascism and built an economic superpower.

Although the National World War II Memorial will not be formally dedicated until May 29, the fences came down Thursday so that the aging veterans could begin to visit the 7.4-acre site between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument. Of the 16 million who served, fewer than 4 million are still alive, and they are dying, by one estimate, at the rate of more than 1,000 a day.

But it wasn’t just the old-timers who came the first day; the memorial was overrun with youngsters. Chris Brown, an assistant pastor at a church in Alexandria, Va., brought his four children, all under the age of 7, to teach them about the war that cost their great-grandfather a leg.

And Evan Lally, a 13-year-old on a class trip from Hilltown Cooperative Charter School in Haydenville, Mass., planned to tell his grandfather, who served in Europe, about the memorial’s Freedom Wall, with its 4,000 gold stars, each representing 100 Americans who died in the war.

The main plaza of the memorial is defined by two arches, representing the Atlantic and Pacific theaters of the war. They are flanked by 56 stone pillars, one for the District of Columbia and each U.S. state and territory at the time of the war. At the center is the restored Rainbow Pool, which has been on the site since the 1920s. Grass, other greenery and water cover more than two-thirds of the site.

In a rare departure from its documentary programming, the History Channel will broadcast the dedication live. “It’s time to say thank you while they are still alive,” said Libby O’Connell, the channel’s historian-in-residence. “Our lives would have been vastly different if these people hadn’t given so much of themselves.”

The dedication of this unusual memorial -- the first in the nation’s history to honor both the veterans who served and the families and workers on the home front -- is expected to attract as many as 800,000 visitors over Memorial Day weekend.

And Washington, recovering from the Sept. 11 terrorist attack on the Pentagon that nearly devastated its $9-billion-a-year tourist industry, is responding with an unparalleled profusion of events and activities themed around World War II. From Memorial Day to Labor Day, virtually every cultural and commercial institution in town will showcase a piece of history during a 100-day tribute to what Tom Brokaw has dubbed “the greatest generation.”

“Washington wants to flex its patriotic muscles again,” said Bill Hanbury, president of the Washington Convention and Tourism Corp. “We want to be the city where Americans can feel safe celebrating their patriotism.”

Hotels are offering special “greatest generation” packages. Chefs and bartenders are adding World War II items to their menus -- such as a “Victory Garden” salad at Ortanique, “Sea-rations” at McCormick & Schmick and the “Perfect 10” martini -- honoring the Tuskegee Airmen, an African American unit that never lost a missile carrier -- at the Ritz-Carlton in Georgetown. For children, Washington Walks is offering a walking tour at the FDR Memorial, seen from the perspective of the president’s Scottish terrier, Fala.

“This is going to be huge,” said Hans Bruland, general manager of the historic Hay-Adams Hotel, across Lafayette Square from the White House. “Everybody is gearing up.”

For veterans descending on Washington for the dedication -- planners say that an estimated 60% of the 117,000 tickets to the event were given to members of the World War II generation -- the hoopla seems not only appropriate, but overdue.

“World War II was our most tragic war, given the number of people killed,” said Bill Davenport, a retired engineer in Santa Ana who with his wife, Jean, chairs the 446th Bomb Group Assn. “The United States came out of it as a superpower. We honored Korea, Vietnam, World War I, and if we ever get out of the Persian Gulf maybe we’ll honor that one too. Why shouldn’t we honor this one?”

Davenport said he was concerned last fall when the 446th Bomb Group Assn., now with fewer than 1,000 members, reserved 55 rooms for the event, wondering, “Who’d want to be in that big crowd?” Instead, he has 20 people on a waiting list.

Though the government provided about $10 million in start-up costs, most of the money for the project came from private donations. After a nationwide “It’s Time to Say Thank You” fundraising campaign featuring Tom Hanks, the star of “Saving Private Ryan,” the American Battle Monuments Commission received $164 million in contributions. Nearly $14.8 million was collected in Wal-Mart stores, $25 million from veterans groups, $60 million from 600,000 individual donors, and $195 from Zane Fayos, a 10-year-old from Fayetteville, N.Y., who donated his life savings.

“This is by far better than spending my money,” said Fayos, now 15 and heading to Washington to attend the dedication with his mother, Zeta. “It will be really nice to see it.”

From the time legislation establishing the memorial was introduced in 1987, the project has been controversial. Preservationists despaired at the notion of disturbing the vista between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument. Architecture critics disparaged the memorial’s design, chiding architect Friedrich St.Florian for oversized columns of Romanesque stature.

But St.Florian, a faculty member at the Rhode Island School of Design, has high hopes for his creation. “This plaza will be the most beautiful public space in Washington,” he said during a recent walk-through at the site, pointing to the 17th Street entrance with its gently cascading lawn and amphitheater seating.

An Austrian immigrant who was 12 when his village was liberated from the Nazis, St.Florian was one of 400 architects who entered a blind contest to design the memorial. “The only condition was to be an architect and to be an American,” he said. “I am an American. It’s a tribute to America that an immigrant is getting an unbelievable opportunity.”

The first time he saw the nation’s capital, he said, was when he was designing his entry. He got off the train at Union Station and noticed two imposing flagpoles where visitors congregated even though there was no place to sit down. St.Florian vowed, and has delivered, flagpoles at the World War II Memorial that are wrapped by benches.

Historian Douglas Brinkley, director of the National D-Day Museum in New Orleans, initially opposed the proposal for a memorial to the World War II generation. “I never believed they were [the] ‘greatest generation’; every generation does great things,” he said. And, Brinkley said, “I’m a big green-space person. I thought it was unnecessary” to interrupt the urban landscape of the Mall.

Now, Brinkley said, he has made his peace with the design -- St.Florian’s original concept was scaled down to quiet the critics -- and has come to appreciate its relevance.

“The memorial has a lot of granite, like Lincoln,” he said. “It’s going to be a wonderful, reflective place. It’s a great place to talk to young people and read the inscriptions and remember the incredible will of a nation.”

Workers who built the memorial also felt the pull of history. “I’ve been in this business 32 years, and this is a once-in-a-lifetime kind of job,” said construction manager Kent Mosmiller, whose father served in the 29th Infantry Division during World War II. “I’ve never seen workers, all the way from laborers to project managers, take so much care and caution. Nobody wanted to be the one who did something wrong.”

Mosmiller and Victor McCoy were staking out fences on Sept. 11, 2001, when a delivery truck arrived with the trailers that would serve as headquarters for the architect and contractors. The driver called them over to listen on the truck’s radio to reports of a plane hitting the World Trade Center in New York.

As they were listening, a plane flew overhead, very low, in restricted airspace. Mosmiller thought the plane was going to hit the nearby Washington Monument. McCoy said, “Man, that pilot’s in trouble.” As they were walking back to the site, they heard a boom.

Mosmiller and McCoy left early that day, evacuating from a city that by sundown was devoid of traffic, pedestrians and noise. On Memorial Day weekend, Mosmiller will attend the dedication with his father’s good friend, a veteran of the landing at Omaha Beach on D-day.

Of the memorial, Mosmiller said, “It was like building a piece of history. I only wish my father had lived to see it.”