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Air Force Memorial honors 60 years of service and sacrifice

Originally published Oct. 28, 2006

With three stainless steel spires rising from a promontory overlooking the Pentagon and Washington, D.C., the United States Air Force Memorial in Arlington, Va., occupies prime ground for reminding Americans daily of the contributions of their Air Force.

More significant is its location next to the hallowed ground of Arlington National Cemetery, said retired Maj. Gen. Edward F. Grillo Jr., president of the Air Force Memorial Foundation.

“Arlington National Cemetery has a long, long history of prominence, history of valor, history of just being a very, very special site,” he said. “To be close to [it] is … just very symbolic of those that have served and those that have paid the ultimate sacrifice.”

More than 54,000 airmen have been killed in action serving in the Air Force and its predecessor organizations such as the U.S. Army Air Corps, and this memorial to their sacrifice stands watch just a stone’s throw away from where many of them were laid to rest.

Capturing flight

The centerpiece of the memorial is the constellation of three stainless-steel spires that rise and then arc gently away from one another.

The spires, each of which measures 13.5 feet on each side at the base, rise to heights of 201, 230 and 270 feet before tapering to points.

The memorial foundation charged the architect, James Ingo Freed of Pei Cobb Freed & Partners, with the difficult task of representing the Air Force visually.

As he did in previous projects such as the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Freed, who died in 2005, tried to distill the central idea of what he was to memorialize and then capture it with an abstraction.

“The challenge he was presented is how do you show the medium in which the Air Force works, which is air and space?” Grillo said. “He chose to do it by these spires that literally soar into the air. … I could not think of a better way to do it. You just look at those spires and you get the feeling of soaring into the heavens and soaring into flight.”

As Freed himself put it in his architect’s statement about the project: “The core of this effort lies in making air tangible, making technology felt.”

It is also significant that there are three spires, Grillo said.

“The symbology of the three is very, very good from the aspect that the Air Force has three core values,” he said. “The other great thing about it is there are three major components that make up the Air Force mission, [and] that’s the active, the Guard and the Reserve. … Quite frankly, we don’t do that mission without those three components.”

Embedded in stone beneath the spires is the Air Force star that enlisted airmen wear on their insignia and that adorned aircraft for much of the service’s history.

Site is memorial park

The rest of the three-acre site is a memorial park comprising several elements that honor the traditions, values and history of the Air Force.

At the north end of the site, closest to the cemetery, is a 56-foot-long, 10-foot-high inscription wall. Etched into polished black granite are the words valor, courage and sacrifice.

The wall lists the airmen who have received the Medal of Honor, going back to 1918 and including such luminaries as Charles Lindbergh and Lt. Col. James Doolittle.

The designers have left room for more names to be added.

The wall also has quotes relating to valor and sacrifice, including not only quotes from four-star generals and other leaders, but also from regular airmen.

“I can’t think of a more positive way to present what ultimately our Air Force is all about,” Grillo said, “and that is all of us getting the job done.”

In front of the north inscription wall is a clear glass contemplation wall — 9 feet wide by 10 feet high — etched with a scene of planes flying in the “missing man” formation. It is intended to honor the sacrifice of fallen airmen, Grillo said.

Across a central plaza, at the south end of the site, is another black granite wall that recognizes the Air Force’s core values and combat campaigns.

The center section of the wall is inscribed with the core values of integrity, service and excellence.

“The core values [are] what tie us together,” Grillo said. “It’s the elements that make us all march to the tune of the same drummer.”

On either side of the core values inscription are the names, dates and locations of each of the Air Force’s campaigns, including those of the Army Air Corps and other predecessor organizations.

The final element of the memorial site, in front of the south inscription wall and opposite the contemplation wall, is an 8-foot bronze statue of the Air Force Honor Guard.

“That represents the human element of the Air Force,” Grillo said. “We can have all the metal and all the machinery you want, but without the human element, it doesn’t get done.”

Rather than create a nondescript honor guard, sculptor Zenos Frudakis used real airmen as models for the figures. The four models were white, black, Hispanic and female.

“I thought it really shouldn’t be four white men,” Frudakis told The Associated Press. “Every honor guard I see reflects the diversity of the Air Force.”

Choosing a site

The 15-year process to create the memorial did not always proceed smoothly.

The Air Force Memorial Foundation was created in January 1992, and Congress passed legislation in November 1993 allowing the memorial to be built on federal land.

The foundation initially studied more than 30 potential sites before settling in 1994 on a site near the United States Marine Corps Memorial, more commonly called the Iwo Jima Memorial.

The site was approved in 1994 and 1995 by several planning commissions that review memorial proposals in the capital region, but opponents of placing the new memorial near the Marine memorial began maneuvering to block construction at the site.

The dispute ended up in federal court in 1998, and an appeals court finally sided with the Air Force Memorial Foundation in 1999.

Meanwhile, Sen. John Warner, R-Va., interceded in the dispute and proposed locating the memorial on a three-acre site next to the Navy Annex.

The move became official in December 2001, when President Bush signed the 2002 Defense Authorization Act, which made the Navy Annex land available.

Pei Cobb Freed unveiled the design for the memorial in 2003, and construction began in September 2004.

The final piece of the memorial was lifted into place Sept. 21, more than 14 years after the Memorial Foundation was created.

“I would like to say that it could all be done quicker,” Grillo said, “but probably that’s the length of time that the typical memorial takes. … We think it’s coming to fruition at a wonderful time, and that is it’s going to be the opening kickoff event to the Air Force’s 60th anniversary celebration.”

The Air Force will mark its 60th birthday Sept. 18, 2007.

Grillo has been involved in the project only since 2001, but he has worked doggedly to raise funds and guide the project through what he called “a very elaborate process.”

“Quite frankly, if my eyes look like they’re exhausted, they probably are,” he said. “But I don’t feel that way because of the sheer excitement that I think we have captured the essence of what an Air Force Memorial should be about. And when the people come here and they see … how it represents the Air Force … it makes every ounce of sleep that I have lost go away.”