More than 2.5 million veterans have served in the global war on terrorism, but, unlike their comrades from previous conflicts, they do not have a memorial of their own. That’s changing, however, thanks to veterans who joined forces in order to get the project done.
Chad Longell, an Afghanistan War veteran, began promoting the idea of a memorial in 2013. He started small, buying a domain name and setting up social media profiles to help spread the word.
Little did he know, fellow soldier Andrew Brennan had been considering the same thing.
“He and I were thinking of the idea pretty much in a very similar time frame,” Longell said. “It turned out he was getting out of Afghanistan when I was coming in.”
The young soldiers didn’t connect, though, until an older veteran also had the idea.
In 2015, Jan Scruggs, the man behind the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, retired after decades of charitable work. Even in retirement, Scruggs felt that his work wasn’t done.
“I said to myself, I think I have one more legacy that I really have to do,” Scruggs told the Washington Examiner.
The death of Master Sgt. Joshua Wheeler, the first U.S. serviceman killed fighting the Islamic State, inspired Scruggs. He wrote an op-ed calling for a monument for veterans of the post-9/11 wars.
Longell saw the op-ed and immediately emailed Scruggs. Longell had gathered a group and filed paperwork to incorporate an organization and wanted help from the master. Scruggs replied the next day, outlining a potential plan. He suggested an advisory role for himself, allowing the younger veterans to take the lead.
Soon, Longell received a Facebook message from Brennan, who had seen Longell’s Facebook page. The two decided to merge their efforts in early 2016, into a Global War on Terrorism Memorial Foundation.
Scruggs estimated the project could cost anywhere between $50,000,000 to $150,000,000 and might take as many as 20 years to complete. But time and money were just two of many waiting hurdles.
“Turns out, it’s a 24-step process to build a memorial on the National Mall,” Longell told the Washington Examiner with a chuckle.
Complicating the matter was the Commemorative Works Act of 1986, which lists criteria that must be met before a monument can be built on the National Mall. The law states that a war must be over for 10 years before a memorial can be built, Longell said. The requirement could delay the effort until 2024. But there was no end in sight for the war on terrorism, and veterans from the conflict’s earliest days were starting to age.
“Today, a 40-year-old service member that seized the first airfield in Kandahar in 2001 is now 56,” Andrew Brennan said at a 2017 press conference.
Hoping to expedite the memorial process, the Global War on Terrorism Memorial group teamed up with Democratic Massachusetts Rep. Seth Moulton and Republican Montana Rep. Ryan Zinke, both veterans. Congress did not pass an initial bill to authorize a Global War on Terrorism commemorative work. In 2017, the band lost one of its primary sponsors when Zinke became secretary of the interior.
The Global War on Terrorism band then recruited Marine Corps veteran Mike Gallagher, a Republican from Wisconsin who had just been elected to Congress. With bipartisan sponsors secured, the bill was resubmitted and passed in July 2017.
The bill only gave the foundation the green light to go ahead with the idea; they still had to work on funding the enterprise and checking all the bureaucratic boxes.
On Tuesday, Gallagher and Democratic Colorado Rep. Jason Crow, who served with the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division in Iraq, began the next step in the process. They submitted legislation to authorize a place for the memorial on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.
“We stand ready to work with Congress as they consider this important piece of legislation and look forward to the passage of the Global War on Terrorism Memorial Location Act,” Michael Rodriguez, president and CEO of the fund, told the Washington Examiner. “We as Americans share a sacred duty to honor all those who have selflessly served. It is a charge we do not take lightly; it is a charge we will keep.”
It’s an important step in the process, Longell said, but he sees much work ahead.
“We’re going through the site selection phase,” Longell said. “And once we decide on that, we’ve got to do engineering surveys, the environmental surveys, and then we’ll do a national design competition.”
The group aims to raise between $50 million to $100 million for the project, with a goal to break ground by 2022 and complete the memorial by Veterans Day 2024.
