Posted on 05/28/2004 5:07:42 AM PDT by BigWaveBetty
The memorial honors the 16 million who served in the armed forces of the U.S. during World War II, the more than 400,000 who died, and the millions who supported the war effort from home. Symbolic of the defining event of the 20th Century, the memorial is a monument to the spirit, sacrifice, and commitment of the American people to the common defense of the nation and to the broader causes of peace and freedom from tyranny throughout the world. It will inspire future generations of Americans, deepening their appreciation of what the World War II generation accomplished in securing freedom and democracy. Above all, the memorial stands as an important symbol of American national unity, a timeless reminder of the moral strength and awesome power that can flow when a free people are at once united and bonded together in a common and just cause.
Site
The first step in establishing the memorial was the selection of an appropriate site. Congress provided legislative authority for siting the memorial in the prime area of the national capital, known as Area I, which includes the National Mall. The National Park Service, the Commission of Fine Arts, and the National Capital Planning Commission approved selection of the Rainbow Pool site at the east end of the Reflecting Pool between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument. President Clinton dedicated the memorial site during a formal ceremony on Veterans Day 1995.
Design
ABMC engaged the General Services Administration’s (GSA) Public Buildings Service to act as its agent to manage the memorial project. The design submitted by Friedrich St.Florian, an architect based in Providence, R.I., was selected as one of six semi-finalists in an open, national competition. Leo A Daly, an international architecture firm, assembled the winning team with St.Florian as the design architect. The team also includes George E. Hartman of Hartman-Cox Architects, Oehme van Sweden & Associates, and sculptor Ray Kaskey. St.Florian’s memorial design concept was approved by the Commission of Fine Arts and the National Capital Planning Commission in the summer of 1998. The commissions approved the preliminary design in 1999, the final architectural design and several ancillary elements in 2000, granite selections in 2001, and sculpture and inscriptions in 2002 and 2003.
Fund-raising Campaign
The memorial is funded primarily by private contributions. The fund-raising campaign was led by National Chairman Senator Bob Dole and National Co-Chairman Frederick W. Smith.
Senator Dole, a World War II veteran seriously wounded on the battlefield and twice decorated with the Bronze Star and Purple Heart, was the Republican nominee for president in 1996 and the longest-serving Republican Leader in the U.S. Senate.
Frederick W. Smith is chairman, president and chief executive officer of FedEx Corporation, a $17 billion global transportation and logistics holding company. He is a graduate of Yale and a former U.S. Marine Corps officer, and serves on the boards of various transport, industry and civic organizations.
The memorial received more than $195 million in cash and pledges. This total includes $16 million provided by the federal government.
Timeline
Construction began in September 2001. The memorial opened to the public on April 29, 2004. The memorial will be dedicated on Saturday, May 29, 2004 -- Memorial Day Weekend.
ABMC
The American Battle Monuments Commission is an independent, executive branch agency with 11 commissioners and a secretary appointed by the president. The ABMC administers, operates and maintains 24 permanent U.S. military cemeteries and 25 memorial structures in 15 countries around the world. The commission is also responsible for the establishment of other memorials in the U.S. as directed by Congress.
Pulitzer Prize winning photojournalist Max Desfor poses with his September 2, 1945 photograph (R) of Japan's formal surrender on the deck of the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay, at the Memories of World War II photography exhibition in Washington, May 24, 2004. The newly published documentary photography book 'Memories of World War II' is being released to coincide with the dedication of the National WWII Memorial in Washington on May 29. REUTERS/Hyungwon Kang
These photographs will be among of the images presented in AP's exhibit 'Memories of World War II''
American soldiers, riding camels while off duty, wave to a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress in this March 1943 file photo, in Tunisia.
U.S. reinforcements wade through the surf as they land at Normandy in the days following the Allies' June 6,1944, D-Day invasion of occupied France.
U.S. troops in the Pacific islands continued to find enemy holdouts in this March 10, 1945 file photo long after the main Japanese forces had either surrendered or disappeared.
Looking north from 44th Street, New York's Times Square is packed Monday, May 7, 1945, with crowds celebrating the news of Germany's unconditional surrender in World War II.
U.S. Marines of the 28th Regiment of the Fifth Division raise the American flag atop Mt. Suribachi, Iwo Jima, on Feb. 23, 1945.
U.S. soldiers of Pennsylvania's 28th Infantry Division march along the Champs Elysees, the Arc de Triomphe in the background, on Aug. 29, 1944, four days after the liberation of Paris, France.
Also on exhibit Norman Rockwell's paintings 'Four Freedoms.'
Freedom of Speech
Freedom to Worship
More photos at wwiimemorial.com
World War II Memorial Rose
Two words: strap ons.
He's so quick to wrap himself in the flag - the same flag he was just so willing to burn a few decades ago - and surround himself with the trappings of the military - the same military he called baby-killers. It must be confusing to be Kerry.
Best of luck with the "projects."
Take lots of deep breaths, and pray.
It's good to be home.
The Dem convention's historic, wondrous, magical city can't get its act together. Boston's "a few hundred" hotel rooms short of what's needed. Also "a few million" bucks short of what's promised. The city fathers will deny this. Party faithful will deny this. If I am forced to, I will also deny this. However, anyone not already confirmed for a room better schlep along a sleeping bag. As for the money, a host city must provide infrastructure, services, security and other assorted needs. Boston is "almost there." Translation: They're $6 mil short. Being flexible, also patriotic, I am also willing to take this back when they holler. Which they will. (Cindy Adams)
Are Ashleigh Banfield's wedding guests wondering if she'll actually walk down the aisle this time? The famously bespectacled ex-MSNBC and NBC correspondent, whose contract wasn't renewed, has announced July 24 nuptials to former Bloomberg sales exec Howard Gould. She has posted two lavish gift registries online with Crate & Barrel and Tiffany & Co.
Yet with only weeks to go, invitees have purchased only five of the nearly 100 items she's requested. Let's get on the stick, people! You can still buy the happy couple - from Tiffany - a $4,000 silver pitcher, a $3,000 Becker vase and a $2,500 antique ice bucket. There's also that George IV silver tray, up for grabs at $10,500. rest of story
Put me in the WASP column.
They may not be able to get Dubya to eat a grubworm, but wags at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee are determined to vote him off the White House island.
On Thursday, the DCCC will launch "Republican Survivor" - a series of six online cartoons featuring their favorite GOP hate objects. In the online trailer, a naked Vice President Cheney frolics at an undisclosed beach location, Attorney General John Ashcroft covers the breasts of a tribal statue and President Bush stabs himself in the foot with his hunting knife.
A spokeswoman from the Republican National Committee scoffed to us: "This cartoon clearly shows that anger has taken the place of an agenda for the Democratic party, and that is exactly why President Bush and other Republicans will be the ultimate survivors in November."
http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/198959p-171750c.html
... catpuppy (John Kerry! When hair is all that matters ...)
Great tag.
The lady doth protest too much?
My thoughts exactly.
THE New York delegation heading to Boston for the Democratic convention next month has a problem. Every state has a welcoming reception the night before the convention starts. The Boston host committee placed the New York party at a waterfront venue called the L Street Bathhouse. Even though it's a perfectly wholesome facility on a beach, sources say, the Empire State Dems don't like the fact that the name evokes the gay bathhouses Mayor Giuliani closed down at the height of the AIDS scare. "The New York delegation is demanding a new location," said our source. [What, are the NY Dems homophobes?]
JUST ASKING WHICH pro basketball player, husband of a world-class beauty, is said to be having a torrid affair with a recently divorced actress? And when he's not with her, he's chasing other foxes . . . [the LA Lakers' Rick Fox, hubby of Vanessa Williams?]
William Jefferson Clinton's memoir isn't due in stores till June 22, but there's no doubt that the shadow looming over the media landscape belongs to Bubba. Tonight, the former President's raspy drawl is due to echo through Chicago's McCormick Place Convention Center, where publishing players are gathering for BookExpo America.
Mitchell Kaplan, president of the American Booksellers Association, told the AP: "I've never seen such anticipation."
Bill and Hil are both due to hustle their memoirs at the Democratic Convention in Boston. The joint book-signing is "going to be the hottest ticket in town that week," says a Dem insider.
Intersecting nicely with the "mother and father of all roll-outs," as Clinton's lawyer Bob Barnett is calling it, is Wednesday's New York premiere of "The Hunting of the President."
Its subject, who has been invited, is bound to give a thumbs-up to the documentary, which is billed as an exposé of "the 10-year campaign to destroy Bill Clinton." Based on the book by Joe Conason and Gene Lyons, the movie is directed by Harry Thomason who, like his wife, Linda Bloodworth-Thomason, is an old pal of the Clintons.
"That's why we only put in facts, not opinions," Thomason tells us.
Unfortunately, he says, only one of 137 Clinton critics the producers approached - that is, Jerry Falwell - agreed to be interviewed. So he's made an effort to invite some Republicans, including Mayor Bloomberg, Rudy Giuliani, Gov. Pataki and former Massachusetts Gov. William Weld, to the post-screening panel, moderated by Harry Evans.
Thomason says the film doesn't ignore Clinton's "indiscretions."
Speaking of which: Monica Lewinsky is denying a report that she wants to make a movie about her White House affair with Clinton, in which she hopes she'd be played by Mandy Moore.
Moore, in any case, isn't interested. "I am a pretty modest girl," she tells us.
And while we're reliving Monicagate, Lewinsky betrayer Linda Tripp is leading a guided tour of Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic in September. She tells The Washington Post that the $7,400-per-person vacation "is not open" to press coverage.
"Oh, can you imagine?" asks the Trippster. "Gee, I need more ugly pictures of me."
http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/199315p-172054c.html
Gift registries really tell you a lot about the couple.
The gall to ask for a $10,500 serving tray when an $8000 will do just fine.
Hmmmmm.... is Halle Berry divorced yet?
This is the only reason Kerry made the "right decision" on accepting the nomination.
Sorry, I'm unable to contribute stories, pics, whatnot today, computer on fritz AGAIN. Will ask the family computer genius to look at it asap.
Indeed.
Halle Berry - could be!
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