Image courtesy of OLIN
Rendering of the National Desert Storm War Memorial
A new monument is rising on Washington’s National Mall, “America’s Front Yard,” to honor the courage, service and sacrifice of veterans who served on active duty in Operation Desert Shield or Operation Desert Storm 35 years ago, the two phases of what became known as the Gulf War.
The Desert Shield and Desert Storm Memorial, to be dedicated Saturday, Oct. 24, at 11 a.m., will honor the nearly 700,000 service members who took part, including 383 who died. According to DataUSA
Scott Stump, a Marine Corps Reserve veteran of Desert Storm, grew tired of attending veterans’ events where the men and women who served in those operations were overlooked. “I could not allow this injustice to unfold,” he said. “These very important events should not be relegated to a footnote and not be properly remembered.” In 2011, he founded the nonprofit National Desert Storm Memorial Association and sprang into action.
Dedicated veterans
Stump and his colleagues raised funds, met with National Park Service officials and walked the halls of Congress, ultimately convincing then-Rep. Phil Roe (R-Tenn.) and Sen. John Boozman (R-Ark.) to introduce identical bills to authorize the memorial.
The legislative path was halting and at times uncertain, but on May 28, 2014, the House of Representatives passed the bill 370-0. The Senate later included it in a larger defense bill and approved it.
In December 2014, President Barack Obama signed the legislation authorizing the memorial. In 2017, President Donald Trump signed a bill allowing it to be built on the National Mall.
Kuwait is a major funder of the memorial, Stump said, and the association accepts donations.
The site
The new monument is nearing completion at the southwest corner of Constitution Avenue and 23rd Street N.W., in the shadow of the Lincoln Memorial and near the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
Choosing a site required following the Commemorative Works Act, the federal law that guides the authorization, design and placement of memorials on National Park Service land in Washington, D.C. The Park Service identified more than 30 potential sites and eventually narrowed them to six. Stump and several supporters visited all six in 2015 and 2016.
They quickly settled on the location. “Wow! This is it,” Stump said when he saw it. The site is framed by elm and oak trees and sits near the Lincoln Memorial.
The association’s decision-makers did not want a soaring granite memorial that people just drive by and glance at. They wanted a sacred place where visitors can walk through at their own pace and absorb its significance, as many do at the nearby Vietnam Veterans Memorial and Korean War Veterans Memorial.
The design evokes the Middle East setting and the battle conditions faced by those who fought there. A circle of Brazilian granite has sand-like textures and irregular patterns suggesting a desert. “Fighting in desert conditions, there’s blowing sand,” Stump said. “Your machinery shuts down.”
The walls feature granite bas-relief panels depicting the military buildup, combat and liberation. The panels were created by Emily Bedard, lead sculptor for Foster Reeve, and carved in Carrara, Italy.
The memorial’s circular design reflects the “left hook” maneuver that Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf, commander of U.S. Central Command, used to outflank Iraqi forces in the final days of Operation Desert Storm.
Skip Graffam, a partner with OLIN, a Philadelphia landscape architecture firm, was the lead designer.
Raptors atop
Another special feature will be two raptors, sculpted by Army veteran Robert Eccleston, that appear to rise from the memorial. The bald eagle, America’s national symbol, weighs 400 pounds and has an 11-foot wingspan. It represents American power, freedom and the nation’s role in liberating Kuwait. The 250-pound saker falcon, Kuwait’s national bird, has a nearly 9-foot wingspan and is known for its swift, powerful flight. It represents joy and the liberation of Kuwait.
When I visited Eccleston in his Loveland, Colo., studio, he explained that he studies live birds up close to master details such as anatomy and feather patterns. He went to the National Eagle Repository in Denver, where he had to wear a Tyvek hazmat suit, and to Colorado’s Raptor Education Foundation to study a live gyrfalcon and peregrine falcon. He joined the design team in 2018 and sculpted and cast the two birds over three years.
Eccleston, who has a degree in industrial design, said, “I didn’t want to design toasters. I left the Army to become a sculptor.” Military-related public sculpture is his specialty; he has made 17 public works in bronze and stainless steel, including the 5th Marine Division Memorial at the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Triangle, Va. It depicts an infantryman and honors those who fought and died defeating the Japanese in World War II.
The new memorial, on what many view as sacred ground where America honors its heroes, “reflects a decisive moment in history when America stood at its best,” the association’s website says. It honors “a collective legacy of service, unity and sacrifice. . . … This memorial represents many forms of sacrifice: those who gave their lives in theater, those who passed away later from related causes, and those still carrying the physical and emotional toll of their service.”
The National Park Service estimates the memorial will draw 5 million to 6 million visitors a year.
The wars
On Aug. 2, 1990, Iraqi forces under President Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait. President George H.W. Bush launched Operation Desert Shield, and the United States deployed nearly 700,000 troops to the region. Operation Desert Storm began with an air campaign on Jan. 17, 1991, and U.S. and coalition forces liberated Kuwait on Feb. 28, 1991, after a 100-hour ground war.
A statesman’s view
“Twenty-seven years later, Operation Desert Storm continues to be a shining example of ‘getting it right.’ We won that military battle by building international and domestic support through transparent diplomacy, having the clearly defined objective of liberating Kuwait and executing the plan with the world’s best-trained military. This formula delivered a resounding victory on a scale we could never have imagined. I am very thankful that the National Desert Storm Memorial in Washington, D.C. will allow future generations to learn and draw inspiration from this epic event along with the brave men and women who made it all happen.”
— James A. Baker III, former U.S. Ssecretary of Sstate (1989–1992), Jan. 26, 2018
For more information, visit: National Desert Storm Memorial Association: www.ndswm.org and Robert Eccleston: www.roberteccleston.com,
