The Great War and Modern Memorializing

The last American veteran of World War I, Frank Buckles, died in 2011.  Born when William McKinley was President but savvy enough to use Facebook in his centenarian years, Buckles spent the last years of his life promoting a national memorial in Washington, D.C. for World War I, a war the United States only entered begrudgingly and whose aftermath it dissociated itself from by refusing to ratify the Treaty of Versailles and declining to join the League of Nations.  (Perversely, the idea for the League came from U.S. President Woodrow Wilson.)  American participation in the war has practically been forgotten.  Apart from the odd movie celebrating American heroes of the war, like Sergeant York - Gary Cooper played the title role of Alvin C. York, below, who captured 132 German soldiers single-handedly in the last days of the fighting - it's been ignored in popular culture.

Marginalizing the place of the "war to end all wars" in American history has always been shortsighted and foolish, given how the effects of the war reverberated for years after and led to World War II, the war that ended with the United States at the pinnacle of global power.  Frank Buckles never lived to see his objective fulfilled, but if there is a heaven, he is most likely looking down and smiling.  A national World War I memorial is now being planned in Washington for Pershing Park, a small park just southeast of the White House, which just happens to be named for the American general who commanded U.S. forces at the Western Front. The winning design, from architect Joe Weishaar and sculptor Sabin Howard, was recently unveiled.

The design is to feature a relief sculpture, a wall of remembrance, soldiers' quotations, and a freestanding sculpture to complement the existing sculpture of John J. Pershing.  Groundbreaking is expected by April 2017, for the centennial of American entry into the war, with the memorial to be completed by November 11, 2018 - one hundred years to the day after the signing of the armistice that ended the fighting.  

I should also note that the war ended in an Allied victory that might not have have happened had the United States not joined the war against the German-led Central Powers. 

It's a shame that no American World War I veterans have lived to see this memorial happen.  It's certainly a long overdue honor.   

Below is a rendering of the National World War I Memorial.  A full description is available in this article.