The Korean War Veterans Memorial honors soldiers that fought, served, and died in the Korean War. The memorial is a place of reflection and remembrance and recreates the experience of troops that laid down their life in Korea. The memorial also merges all ethnic backgrounds and all military branches symbolically.
The Korean War Veterans Memorial, which honors those who served in the Korean War, is in the west area of Potomac Park situated in Washington, D.C. It is near the Reflecting Pool on the National Mall and close to the Lincoln Memorial. According to United States Army Corps of Engineers, the total cost of this memorial was $16.5 million.
According to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, this memorial was approved by the U.S. Congress on October 28, 1986 and dedicated in July 1995 by Kim Young Sam, the president of South Korea and former President Bill Clinton. The Korean War Veterans Memorial is part of the National Register of Historic Places maintained by the U.S. Park Service. This means that it is protected by the United States government similar to how a state park is protected.
The memorial includes 19 various statues that are over 7 feet tall. These statues commemorate the branches of the military and include the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines. They also include most ethnicities such as African American, Caucasian, Native American, Hispanic, and Asian.
Symbolically, the memorial speaks volumes. Representing the difficult terrain that the soldiers encountered are the juniper bushes and representing the many obstacles that the soldiers had to conquer are the granite stripes. All of the equipment used in the memorial is genuine and authentic from that period.
All of the Korean War Memorial statues are composed of stainless steel so they look like real soldiers when they are reflected from the sun. Each statue features a soldier draped in a poncho that looks like it is blowing loosely in the wind. The purpose of this is to give the appearance that the soldiers are walking uphill. In the dark, the statues are illuminated for visibility purposes.
The southern area of the memorial is lined with rows of Rose of Sharon hibiscus plants because this is the national flower of South Korea. There is a pool that is shaped to resemble the Republic of Korea peninsula. Various statistics and branches of the military are etched in the stone honoring the soldiers that did not return, the prisoners of war (POW's), and those wounded.
