Places in Washington, D.C.: The Korean War Veterans Memorial

Basic Information

• Name: Korean War Veterans Memorial
• Where: Washington, D.C.
• Founded: July 27, 1995
• Cost: Free
• More Information: Official website

Narrative

In remembrance of the 67th anniversary of the Korean War that began on June 25, 1950 I decided to post pictures from when I visited the Korean War Veterans Memorial in Washington D.C.  The memorial is easy to find since it is located next to the Lincoln Memorial:

Here is a view of the memorial as I approached it from the Lincoln Memorial:

The Korean War Veterans Memorial was dedicated on July 27, 1995 on the 42nd anniversary of the armistice that ended the war.  US President Bill Clinton and South Korean President Kim Young Sam were both on hand for the dedication of the memorial.  Following the ceremony the memorial was handed over to the National Park Service which manages the other memorials on the National Mall:

The memorial is definitely unique since it features 19 stainless steel statues that are each 7-feet tall:

The statues were sculpted by Frank Gaylord of Barre, Vermont:

The statues are walking through juniper bushes separated by granite columns.  This is to represent the rice paddies of Korea:

The statues also represent all the different US military service branches.  There are 14 Army, 3 Marine, 1 Navy and 1 Air Force member included in the memorial:

The statues also represent various ethnicities that served in the Korean War.  For example this statue appears to be of an African-American servicemember:

In total there are 11 caucasian, 4 African-American, 2 Hispanic, 1 Asian-American, and 1 Native-American.  Here is a look at the rest of the statues:

These next two pictures provide a view of the statues as seen from the front of the formation:

This is what in inscribed in front of the statue that sums up the Korean War very well:

Adjacent to the 19 statues is a large Mural Wall:

The Mural Wall shows over 2,400 photographs divided into sections for each of the US military service branches:

Something I thought was kind of cool was that the black marble was reflective which meant the 19 statues could be seen reflected on the wall:

This reflected statues added to the real statues equals 38 which is representative of the 38th parallel that much of the war was fought around and the 38 months that the war was fought:

Here are a few more pictures of the Mural Wall:

The Korean War Veterans Memorial also has a small reflective pool.  The pool listed the war dead, missing, captured, and wounded for both the United States and the United Nations forces that fought in the war:

Here is a look from the reflective pool back towards the statues and the flagpole across from it:

Here is one last important reminder from the Korean War Veterans Memorial, that Freedom is Not Free: