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THIS IS AMERICA
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May 27, 2002: Memorial Day
By Shelley Gollust
A soldier plays ''Taps'' at
Arlington National Cemetery
VOICE ONE:
Monday is Memorial Day in the United States. It is the national holiday when Americans honor the military men
and women who died in battle. Visitors to Washington, D-C, can see four major memorials to these men and
women. I'm Shirley Griffith.
VOICE TWO:
And I'm Sarah Long. The story of Washington's war memorials is our report today on the VOA Special English
program, THIS IS AMERICA.
((MUSIC: "TAPS"))
VOICE ONE:
That music is called "Taps." It is played at military funerals to honor soldiers who have died. The sound of Taps
is being heard at cemeteries throughout the United States as America honors its war dead.
The Memorial Day holiday started in Eighteen-Sixty-Eight. The purpose was to
honor soldiers killed during the Civil War between America's northern and southern
states. Back then, the holiday was called Decoration Day. People used flowers and
ribbons to decorate the burial places of those killed during the war. Today,
Memorial Day honors the men and women who died in all of America's wars.
VOICE TWO:
The first yearly observance of Memorial Day was at the National Cemetery in
Arlington, Virginia. The cemetery is across the Potomac River from Washington,
D.C. It is the largest and most famous national burial place in the United States. It includes about two-hundred
hectares of rolling hills. Up and down the hills are lines of simple, white stones marking the graves where the
soldiers are buried. About two-hundred-thousand soldiers are buried there. They include military and political
leaders, cabinet officers, and Supreme Court judges.
VOICE ONE:
Only two American presidents are buried at Arlington National Cemetery. One is William Howard Taft. He was
president in the early Nineteen-Hundreds. The other is John Kennedy. He was president in the early Nineteen-
Sixties. He was murdered during his first term in office. A fire burns all the time over President Kennedy's burial
place. More people have visited his grave than any other in the United States.
((MUSIC BRIDGE))
VOICE TWO:
Memorial Day ceremonies also are being held at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington. The ceremonies
honor Americans killed in fighting in Vietnam. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial was the idea of Jan Scruggs.
Mister Scruggs fought in Vietnam. After the war, he was deeply troubled. He and others felt that American
soldiers killed in Vietnam had been forgotten. So, he organized efforts to build a monument to honor them. He
wanted to put on the monument the name of every American who died or was missing in the Vietnam War.
VOICE ONE:
In Nineteen-Eighty, a group of former soldiers announced a national competition.
The veterans' group invited American artists to create a memorial to help unite the
nation after the Vietnam War had divided it. Eight famous designers and artists were
the judges. They judged more than one-thousand-four -hundred designs. They chose
the design of Maya Lin. Mizz Lin was twenty-one years old. She was studying
architecture at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. She designed a
memorial made of two black stone walls. The memorial opened in Nineteen-Eighty Two.
VOICE TWO:
The two black stone walls are set into the earth. They are about seventy-six meters long. They form a wide letter
"V". As you walk down into the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, the walls rise above you. Cut into the walls are the
names of the fifty-eight -thousand-two-hundred-twenty-nine Americans who died or are still missing. The names
are listed in the order that the soldiers died. Those who died together are remembered together.
Nearby is a statue of three soldiers. They seem to be looking at the wall of names.
VOICE ONE:
The Vietnam Veterans Memorial has become one of the most-visited places in
Washington. About one and one-half million people visit it every year. People who go
there experience powerful emotions. Many say it has become almost a holy place.
Almost any time of day, you can see people standing at the Vietnam Veterans
Memorial wall. They are looking at the name of a family member or friend who died in
Vietnam. Some reach out and touch the name. Some put a piece of paper over it. They
rub the paper with a pencil so the name on the wall appears on the paper. In this way,
they are able to take part of the memorial with them.
((MUSIC BRIDGE))
VOICE TWO:
The success of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial influenced veterans of the Korean War to press for a memorial of
their own. Congress approved the idea. In July, Nineteen-Ninety-Five, the Korean War Veterans Memorial
opened. It is near the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. It honors the men and women who served, and those who
died, in the Korean War from Nineteen-Fifty to Nineteen-Fifty-Three.
VOICE ONE:
The Korean War Veterans Memorial has several parts. The war has been called "the last foot soldier's war." So,
the memorial includes a series of nineteen statues of soldiers, walking. Artist Frank Gaylord created the statues
from steel. Each is more than two meters high. The soldiers seem to be moving up a hill toward a large American
flag.
On one side of the memorial is a stone walkway. It shows the names of the twenty-two
countries that sent troops to serve in Korea under the United Nations command. On the
other side is a shiny stone wall. It shows images of more than two-thousand-four-
hundred support troops. These include nurses, cooks, and truck drivers. The faces were
reproduced from photographs taken during the war.
VOICE TWO:
The last part of the memorial is the round Pool of Remembrance. The pool shows the
number of American and United Nations forces who died, or who were wounded,
captured, or missing in the war. The number totals more than two-million. Cut into the wall above the pool is the
simple yet powerful message: "Freedom is not free.
"
((MUSIC BRIDGE)
)
VOICE ONE:
The newest war memorial in the Washington area has a long name. It is called the Women in Military Service for
America Memorial. It is very different from the other war memorials. It recognizes the service of all the women
who served in all of the nation's wars. One-million-eight-hundred-thousand American women were part of the
country's military forces. Former President Ronald Reagan signed legislation in Nineteen-Eighty -Six to honor
American women in the military.
A retired air force general, Wilma Vaught, was chosen to lead the effort to build the
memorial. The memorial took eleven years to build. It cost more than twenty-one
million dollars.
VOICE TWO:
The women's military memorial opened in October Nineteen-Ninety-Seven. It is near
the entrance to Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia. Michael Manfredi and Marion
Gail Weiss designed the women's memorial. It is a place of glass, water and light. The
memorial has a large wall that is shaped in a half-circle. In front of the memorial, two-hundred jets of water meet
in a pool. The designers say this water fountain celebrates the combined strength of many individuals.
Inside the memorial, the stories of women in wartime are cut into glass panels. The memorial also has
information about military women on a computer. It includes names, pictures, service records and personal
statements of about two-hundred-fifty-thousand military women.
VOICE ONE:
General Vaught says it was important for women in the military to be honored because their efforts have not been
recognized. She says the Women in Military Service for America Memorial will help tell a story that has never
been told before.
(MUSIC: THE MARINES’
HYMN)
VOICE TWO:
This program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced by Caty Weaver. Our studio engineer was Efim
Drucker. I'm Sarah Long.
VOICE ONE:
And I'm Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA
Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA.
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