VOICE ONE:
Monday is Memorial Day in the United States. It is the nationalholiday when Americans honor the military men and women who died inbattle. Visitors to Washington, D-C, can see four major memorials tothese men and women. I’m Shirley Griffith.
VOICE TWO:
And I’m Sarah Long. The story of Washington’s war memorials isour report today on the VOA Special English program, THIS ISAMERICA.
((MUSIC: “TAPS”))
VOICE ONE:
That music is called “Taps.” It is played at military funerals tohonor soldiers who have died. The sound of Taps is being heard atcemeteries throughout the United States as America honors its wardead.
The Memorial Day holiday startedin Eighteen-Sixty-Eight. The purpose was to honor soldiers killedduring the Civil War between America’s northern and southern states.Back then, the holiday was called Decoration Day. People usedflowers and ribbons to decorate the burial places of those killedduring the war. Today, Memorial Day honors the men and women whodied in all of America’s wars.
VOICE TWO:
The first yearly observance of Memorial Day was at the NationalCemetery in Arlington, Virginia. The cemetery is across the PotomacRiver from Washington, D.C. It is the largest and most famousnational burial place in the United States. It includes abouttwo-hundred hectares of rolling hills. Up and down the hills arelines of simple, white stones marking the graves where the soldiersare buried. About two-hundred-thousand soldiers are buried there.They include military and political leaders, cabinet officers, andSupreme Court judges.
VOICE ONE:
Only two American presidents are buried at Arlington NationalCemetery. One is William Howard Taft. He was president in the earlyNineteen-Hundreds. The other is John Kennedy. He was president inthe early Nineteen-Sixties. He was murdered during his first term inoffice. A fire burns all the time over President Kennedy’s burialplace. More people have visited his grave than any other in theUnited States.
((MUSIC BRIDGE))
VOICE TWO:
Memorial Day ceremonies also are being held at the VietnamVeterans Memorial in Washington. The ceremonies honor Americanskilled in fighting in Vietnam. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial was theidea of Jan Scruggs. Mister Scruggs fought in Vietnam. After thewar, he was deeply troubled. He and others felt that Americansoldiers killed in Vietnam had been forgotten. So, he organizedefforts to build a monument to honor them. He wanted to put on themonument the name of every American who died or was missing in theVietnam War.
VOICE ONE:
In Nineteen-Eighty, a group of former soldiers announced anational competition. The veterans’ group invited American artiststo create a memorial to help unite the nation after the Vietnam Warhad divided it. Eight famous designers and artists were the judges.They judged more than one-thousand-four-hundred designs. They chosethe design of Maya Lin. Mizz Lin was twenty-one years old. She wasstudying architecture at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut.She designed a memorial made of two black stone walls. The memorialopened in Nineteen-Eighty-Two.
VOICE TWO:
The two black stone walls are set into the earth. They are aboutseventy-six meters long. They form a wide letter “V”. As you walkdown into the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, the walls rise above you.Cut into the walls are the names of thefifty-eight-thousand-two-hundred-twenty-nine Americans who died orare still missing. The names are listed in the order that thesoldiers died. Those who died together are remembered together.
Nearby is a statue of three soldiers. They seem to be looking atthe wall of names.
VOICE ONE:
The Vietnam Veterans Memorial has become one of the most-visitedplaces in Washington. About one and one-half million people visit itevery year. People who go there experience powerful emotions. Manysay it has become almost a holy place.
Almost any time of day, you can see people standing at theVietnam Veterans Memorial wall. They are looking at the name of afamily member or friend who died in Vietnam. Some reach out andtouch the name. Some put a piece of paper over it. They rub thepaper with a pencil so the name on the wall appears on the paper. Inthis way, they are able to take part of the memorial with them.
((MUSIC BRIDGE))
VOICE TWO:
The success of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial influenced veteransof the Korean War to press for a memorial of their own. Congressapproved the idea. In July, Nineteen-Ninety-Five, the Korean WarVeterans Memorial opened. It is near the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.It honors the men and women who served, and those who died, in theKorean War from Nineteen-Fifty to Nineteen-Fifty-Three.
VOICE ONE:
The Korean War Veterans Memorial has several parts. The war hasbeen called “the last foot soldier’s war.” So, the memorial includesa series of nineteen statues of soldiers, walking. Artist FrankGaylord created the statues from steel. Each is more than two metershigh. The soldiers seem to be moving up a hill toward a largeAmerican flag.
On one side of the memorial is astone walkway. It shows the names of the twenty-two countries thatsent troops to serve in Korea under the United Nations command. Onthe other side is a shiny stone wall. It shows images of more thantwo-thousand-four-hundred support troops. These include nurses,cooks, and truck drivers. The faces were reproduced from photographstaken during the war.
VOICE TWO:
The last part of the memorial is the round Pool of Remembrance.The pool shows the number of American and United Nations forces whodied, or who were wounded, captured, or missing in the war. Thenumber totals more than two-million. Cut into the wall above thepool is the simple yet powerful message: “Freedom is not free.”
((MUSIC BRIDGE))
VOICE ONE:
The newest war memorial in the Washington area has a long name.It is called the Women in Military Service for America Memorial. Itis very different from the other war memorials. It recognizes theservice of all the women who served in all of the nation’s wars.One-million-eight-hundred-thousand American women were part of thecountry’s military forces. Former President Ronald Reagan signedlegislation in Nineteen-Eighty-Six to honor American women in themilitary.
A retired air force general, WilmaVaught, was chosen to lead the effort to build the memorial. Thememorial took eleven years to build. It cost more than twenty-onemillion dollars.
VOICE TWO:
The women’s military memorial opened in OctoberNineteen-Ninety-Seven. It is near the entrance to Arlington NationalCemetery in Virginia. Michael Manfredi and Marion Gail Weissdesigned the women’s memorial. It is a place of glass, water andlight. The memorial has a large wall that is shaped in ahalf-circle. In front of the memorial, two-hundred jets of watermeet in a pool. The designers say this water fountain celebrates thecombined strength of many individuals.
Inside the memorial, the stories of women in wartime are cut intoglass panels. The memorial also has information about military womenon a computer. It includes names, pictures, service records andpersonal statements of about two-hundred-fifty-thousand militarywomen.
VOICE ONE:
General Vaught says it was important for women in the military tobe honored because their efforts have not been recognized. She saysthe Women in Military Service for America Memorial will help tell astory that has never been told before.
(MUSIC: THE MARINES’ HYMN)
VOICE TWO:
This program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced byCaty Weaver. Our studio engineer was Efim Drucker. I’m Sarah Long.
VOICE ONE:
And I’m Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week for anotherreport about life in the United States on the VOA Special Englishprogram, THIS IS AMERICA.