Fall on the Mall
Kansas and Georgia arrived to cloudy but tolerably comfortable weather and as the Kansas group formed up for the “most organized picture of the year”, Senator Dole arrived. After we made the group picture, Senator Dole talked about the fact that the WWII Memorial was built by private contributions and that the government had nothing to do with it. I’ve heard him talk about this literally a hundred times but never tire of it. I have come to believe that the country runs on the tremendous energy and ambition of its citizens. Despite the government, Memorials get built, veterans are transported as they should to their Memorial and books get distributed. The pictures are as usual downloadable and free at the Jewel of the Mall photo site.
Our WWII Memorial veterans are just wonderful to be with. They are “humble heroes” and I very much enjoy my time at the Memorial enormously. One of the Veterans I talked to today flew tail gunner on a B24 said: “I didn’t do anything special but knew that I had to get it done if I wanted to get home.”
Diane Sinclair and her ground crew, Dean, the National Park Service rangers, George Kerestes (“the countdown is on”) and all the volunteers, students, bagpipers, medics, etc… are a pleasure to be around. Recently there have been a lot of volunteers from Ft. Meade and whoever is responsible, please send me a note. It’s nice to see these young soldiers visiting with the veterans. For you regular readers (and not so regular), there’s a nice article by Mike Kelly, columnist on New Jersey’s WWII Memorial which just opened yesterday. It encountered many of the same problems that happened with the National Memorial.