Answer Man Soldiers On To Seek Out Army Memorials

By John Kelly
Sunday, November 12, 2006

When the new Air Force Memorial was dedicated, I read that the Air Force had been "the only military branch not to have its own Washington memorial." I am familiar with the Marine Corps Memorial and the Navy Memorial. However, after considerable research I can find no reference to an Army Memorial. Can you tell us where it is?

-- Howard Koppenhaver, Springfield

I heard that all the services now have memorials in the D.C. area. I was a lowly draftee 38 years ago and figured that I just didn't know about the Army memorial. Is there one?

-- Chuck Shelton, Arlington

Soldier, if the Army had wanted you to know where the U.S. Army memorial is, it would have told you about it!

Sorry, Answer Man couldn't resist. Is there an Army memorial? Yes and no.

Consider this: There are not one but two Army memorials near the White House. One depicts a winged figure of Victory and was dedicated in 1924 at 17th Street and State Place NW. The other is a gilded flaming sword erected on the Ellipse in 1936.

But these monuments memorialize the exploits and soldiers of specific Army divisions -- Victory honors the 1st Division, the sword the 2nd. Neither celebrates the Army as a whole, nor do any of the scores of other monuments at battlefields and Army posts across the country, which honor individual units or divisions.

"I can't officially answer why the Army does not have a single iconic memorial," said Bill Epley , a historian at the Center of Military History at Fort McNair.

Epley and others have their suspicions, though, and they have to do with how the Army is organized and the relationships that develop among soldiers.

Let us travel back to 1863, when Gen. Joseph Hooker , commander of the Army of the Potomac, directed that Union soldiers wear badges designating which corps they belonged to. That way his officers would know who was who as they rode along the battle lines.

"The soldiers said, 'You know, I like this badge. I identify with this badge,' " Bill said of the emblems, the forebears of the patches today's soldiers wear. The badges did not necessarily create loyalty to that division, but they surely reflected it.

Not much has changed. When people enlist, they aren't joining the 1 million soldiers who comprise active duty, National Guard and Army Reserve personnel, they're becoming members of smaller units -- units that train, live and fight together.

"It's not harder [than serving in other branches of the military], it's just different," Bill said. "When they get out, if they survive a year in Iraq -- or Vietnam or Korea -- they'll remember their buddies, and they'll remember their unit."

That's what the Army is to them. And they often remember their unit by donating funds to help build a monument in its honor.

A $300 million Army museum planned for near Fort Belvoir may become something of a memorial.

"We are a museum, and our primary emphasis is education, history and science, but certainly memorializing the service of our soldiers and veterans is in our scope," said Judson Bennett Jr., the director of the museum, which has yet to break ground. (It might open as early as 2012.) Judson said he could envision a chapel area at the museum or a place for quiet reflection off a woodland trail on the grounds.

These aren't what most people think of when they think memorial -- something monolithically eye-catching. But given how diverse the Army is, that might be a tough mission.

"I think there'd be a dogfight" over what image might represent the Army today, Epley said. "Is it an artillery piece? Then the infantry would get mad."

Julia Feldmeier helped research this column. Have a question about the Washington area? Let Answer Man answer it. Writeanswerman@washpost.comor John Kelly, The Washington Post, 1150 15th St. NW, Washington, DC 20071.