Disabled American veterans soon will have their own memorial in the shadow of the U.S. Capitol.
Ground was broken Wednesday for the American Veterans Disabled for Life Memorial. When it’s completed, the 2.4-acre site across from the U.S. Botanic Gardens between Washington Avenue SW and Second Street SW will be a permanent memorial to the more than 3 million disabled veterans.
The design will feature a triangular-shaped reflecting pool surrounded by three 8-foot glass walls with quotes and pictures of disabled veterans. A star-shaped fountain with a ceremonial flame in the middle of it will feed into the reflecting pool.
Rick Fenstermacher, a spokesman for the Disabled Veterans Life Memorial Foundation, said $3 million is still required to complete the $85 million project by its planned opening of Veterans Day 2012.
Lois Pope promised herself decades ago when singing to Vietnam veterans in New York that if she was ever financially able to help them, she would. Her chance came in 1995 during a visit to the Vietnam Memorial when she was informed that no memorial for disabled veterans existed.
Pope, whose late husband owned the National Enquirer, donated $9 million to the memorial. Then she dedicated herself to the effort of the creation of one, co-founding the Disabled Veterans’ LIFE Memorial Foundation in 1998 with former Secretary of Veterans Affairs Jesse Brown and Arthur Wilson, national adjutant of the Disabled American Veterans. And the 12-year effort began.
“Far too many of these brave men and women will carry their scars and their disabilities for life,” Pope said at the ceremony Wednesday, adding that the memorial will “go a long way to showing our admiration, our respect and our gratitude.”
Actor and national spokesman for the memorial, Gary Sinise, played the role of disabled veteran Lt. Dan Taylor in the 1994 film “Forrest Gump.” Sinise said the “distinct honor” of the role “changed me and educated me about the strength and character of our disabled veterans,” calling the story of his character a “hopeful and positive story of triumph over adversity.”
Sinise said 3 million of the living 26 million veterans are disabled, and the memorial will pay tribute to those who will always have “a constant reminder of the hell they went through.”
