Or, if you saved the paper until after supper, I may be winging my way home on a chartered jet, still among heroes.
You have probably guessed that the heroes aren’t in Congress or anywhere else on the political landscape. I generally reserve a much less laudatory word for that crowd.
No, I have the privilege of being a fly on the wall as the West Georgia Honor Flight takes its latest contingent of World War II veterans on a one-day, all-expense-paid visit to the National World War II Memorial. About 20 Troup County veterans, your friends and neighbors, are in the group.
Like the song says, “It’s gonna be a great day.”
A great day for the greatest generation.
But, as I’ve looked forward to it, planned for it, worked on it, one nagging question kept spinning through my head.
The World War II Memorial, located on the National Mall between the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial, was completed in 2004, nearly 60 years after the war ended.
“What took us so long?” my mind kept asking. “What took us so long?” my heart implored.
How did we manage to build D.C. memorials to the Vietnam and Korean War veterans before anything of a national nature was done for the heroes of the Battle of the Bulge, Normandy and Guadalcanal?
Turns out, I’m not the only one who’s wondered. Much, in fact, has been written about it, including a brilliant book by Nicolaus Mills titled “The Last Battle: The Fight for a National World War II Memorial.”
“Why it took us so long to honor a war generation we admire is a complicated story,” Mills wrote in the introduction to his 2004 book.
I commend it to you, if you want to know the whole story, but offer my feeble synopsis to whet your curiosity and heighten your appreciation for the veterans among us and the dedicated volunteers whose tireless work makes the Honor Flights possible.
Part of the reason no timely memorial to World War II veterans was built has to do with the unassuming nature of the vets themselves, Mills concludes.
Many didn’t want to talk about their experiences, much less be reminded by a traditional memorial. They’d done what needed to be done. They were busy taking advantage of the G.I. Bill to get an education and buy homes for the families they were starting. They were ready to get on with their lives.
Many cities and some states chose to build “living memorials.” The Depression was a recent memory. There was a strong sense that money should be spent rebuilding the country, not on what some GIs called “cast-iron soldiers.” And so we came to have parks and playgrounds, recreation centers, bridges, libraries and auditoriums, all built in tribute to our citizen heroes.
Oddly enough, the sheer greatness of the World War II generation proved another deterrent to a traditional memorial. No memorial could do them justice, many said. Once the Vietnam and Korean memorials were built - and the WWII vets began passing on in growing numbers - public opinion began to turn and calls for a national memorial increased. But so did the aesthetic concerns.
Writes Mills, “The question surrounding the National World War II Memorial was, Did it not have to be more architecturally significant and more centrally located than the memorials to the two lesser wars that came after World War II?”
Many in the worlds of art and architecture opposed adding yet another monument to the mall, especially in a prime spot, claiming it would spoil the grandeur of the Washington and Lincoln monuments. Others felt no design could be adequate and that an inferior tribute would diminish, rather than enhance, future generations’ respect for the heroes of WWII.
That the memorial finally was built on the central spine of the Mall, Mills says, speaks volumes about the way the World War II veterans are revered because “no other place in the country more dramatically symbolizes who we believe ourselves to be as a people.”
Sooner than later, the most important audience for the World War II Memorial will be those future generations. But while we still have World War II veterans among us, “who we are” as a people requires us to ensure that as many of these heroes as possible get to see it. That’s what Honor Flight is all about.
By the time you read this, if all goes according to plan, 75 more veterans from West Georgia will have been honored at their memorial.
Future generations will be privileged to walk in their steps.
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