More than 35 years after the first Gulf War, veterans who served in Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm are about to get a place of their own on the National Mall.
The National Desert Storm Memorial, now about 90% complete, is scheduled to be dedicated Oct. 24. The memorial honors the nearly 700,000 Americans who served during the 1990-91 war with Iraq and sits near Constitution Avenue and 23rd Street NW.
Skip Graffam, design partner at OLIN and the National Desert Storm Memorial’s lead landscape architect, said one of the main goals was to create a place veterans could connect with.
“I hope first and foremost they feel like after all this time they have a spot on the mall that they feel is theirs,” Graffam said.
Visitors will descend into a circular memorial surrounded by sweeping granite walls designed to resemble desert dunes. Images from the war are carved into the stone, with stealth aircraft and other scenes appearing to emerge from the sand.
At the center sits a massive coalition shield engraved with the names of countries that joined the effort to liberate Kuwait from invading Iraq.
“This was a shared effort,” Graffam said. “Everyone was in this together, kind of creating that shield for Kuwait,” Graffam said.
The shield will eventually serve as the centerpiece of a fountain. Graffam said water will emerge from beneath it and flow through channels across the memorial.
“The water is a bonus, and it’s meant to activate and make this feel like a really kind of beautiful, peaceful oasis in the center,” Graffam said.
Protective coverings conceal a falcon and eagle representing Kuwait and the United States. They will be revealed when the memorial opens.
“The idea that they’re flying in relation to each other, but the Kuwait Sacred Falcon is flying off on its own eventually. It’s been liberated,” Graffam said.
For Scott Stump, founder and president and CEO of the National Desert Storm Memorial Association and a Desert Storm veteran, the memorial represents the culmination of more than 15 years of work.
“It dawned on me at the 20th anniversary back in 2010. I decided that something needed to be done; that this was too important,” Stump said.
The memorial is expected to cost more than $40 million. Stump said more than $25 million came from the State of Kuwait, the project’s largest donor.
Stump said he hopes the memorial ensures those who served, and those who died, are remembered.
“They’re not going to be forgotten. That’s a common theme that I always hear. They’re not going to be forgotten,” Stump said.
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