Veterans of the war on terror that began nearly two decades ago in response to the attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon are eager to see a memorial erected in the nation’s capital to honor their service and sacrifices.
“For us, this is a truly, deeply personal matter,” U.S. Rep. Jared Golden, a Maine Democrat, told a U.S. Senate subcommittee considering the issue Wednesday.
Golden is among the lawmakers pressing Congress to clear the way for construction of the Global War on Terrorism Memorial authorized in 2017 in a section called the Reserve — described by the administration as “the great cross-axis of the Mall” which extends from the U.S. Capitol to the Lincoln Memorial, and from the White House to the Jefferson Memorial beside the Tidal Basin.
It’s an area of heightened scrutiny for any changes because it contains many of the most treasured monuments and memorials in the country.
Michael Caldwell, acting associate director for the National Park Service’s park planning division, told the subcommittee that it can’t support the plan to put the memorial in the Reserve because Congress declared the area finished decades ago.
“How could it be complete when the history of our country is not?” Golden asked.
U.S. Sen. Angus King, a Maine independent chairing the National Parks Subcommittee of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, said the proposal “aligns with the supreme sacrifice” that many made in the war.
More than 2.7 million veterans have participated in the war, all of them volunteers, and more than 7,000 Americans have perished in it.
Congress approved the concept of a memorial in Washington with a unanimous vote in 2017. President Donald Trump signed the measure into law.
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https://americanmilitarynews.com/2021/06/rep-jared-golden-presses-for-war-on-terror-memorial-in-nations-capital/?