WASHINGTON — The list of iconic monuments that call the National Mall home has now grown as a groundbreaking ceremony for The Desert Storm and Desert Shield Memorial brought the public together for a historic moment Thursday afternoon.
The goal of the memorial is to create an educational and meaningful experience for visitors about the historical events of Desert Storm and Desert Shield. It is also expected to illustrate the significance of the 34-national coalition that united to liberate Kuwait from Iraq and defended Saudi Arabia and the Arabian Peninsula from further invasion.
Operations Desert Storm and Desert Shield were the first major foreign crises for the United States after the end of the Cold War. The completion of the war was one of the swiftest in history with it taking a total of six months, three weeks and five days.
A plan for the memorial has been in the works for over a decade. The timeline even includes signatures from two presidents. In Dec. 2014, President Barack Obama signed the law to authorize the memorial to be built in the nation's capital and in March 2017 President Donald Trump signed a bill into law authorizing it to be built near the National Mall.
The memorial site is set to be in close proximity to the Lincoln Memorial and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
The design for the memorial will not include names of the fallen soldiers but will instead represent all who served.
"Our mission is to honor all who served," The National Desert Storm Memorial Association (NDSMA) website says. "Unlike the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, which continues to attempt to include all those who died, our memorial has a unique challenge of delivering a message about America in its finest hour."
The NDSMA's goal is to have the memorial completed by 2024. It will join monuments such as Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial, Thomas Jefferson Memorial, Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Washington Monument, and more on the National Mall.
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