Readers of Roads to the Great War and the St. Mihiel Trip-Wire know that I have been a strong supporter for building a National World War I Memorial at Pershing Park in Washington, DC. You may have read that the National WWI Commission's design has been unanimously approved by both the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts and the National Capital Planning Commission, the agencies that have primary design approval authority for the memorial. With those approvals, the detailed design work is proceeding with the aim of holding a ground breaking on the site in November.
 |
| One Perspective of the Approved Design |
Mr. Edwin Fountain, Vice Chairman of the WWI Centennial Commission, who is heading up the effort to design and build the memorial, has contacted me to ask for assistance from our readers. Mr. Fountain provided a nice summary of what is now needed for the memorial project:
"Apt quotations are often powerful elements of memorials, and we plan to include similar inscriptions at the WWI memorial. Hence, this request to you: Could you please identify what you consider to be worthy quotations for inclusion on the memorial. There are no restrictions on what might be a suitable quotation (other than probably being limited to a paragraph in length)–we are looking for:
- Quotations from generals and statesmen as well as Doughboys, loved ones, and civilians
- Quotes from Americans as well as allies and adversaries
- Quotations not just about the accomplishments of American troops, but about the nature of the battle, the costs and sacrifice, geopolitical aspects of the war, the socio-cultural aspects of the war in the U.S., the effects of the war on the home front, etc.
- Quotations from those who experienced the war and those who served in it.
- Quotations reflecting the diversity of service and contributions from all segments of American society
- Quotations from speeches, press reports, official reports, and histories as well as diaries, letters, memoirs, poems, songs, etc.
Here are some examples from other American war memorials:
"Uncommon Valor Was A Common Virtue" and "Semper Fidelis"
U.S. Marine Corps Memorial
"We have met the enemy and they are ours." and "Sighted sub, sank same"
U.S. Navy Memorial
"Kilroy Was Here," and
"Here in the presence of Washington and Lincoln one the eighteenth century father and the other the nineteenth century preserver of our nation, we honor those twentieth century Americans who took up the struggle during the Second World War and made the sacrifices to perpetuate the gift of our forefathers entrusted to us: a nation conceived in liberty and justice."
U.S. World War II Memorial
 |
| Another View of the Memorial, General Pershing in Distance |
Mr. Fountain and I would like you, our readers, to check your memories and your own libraries for appropriate quotes and submit them for considerations.
There are three ways to submit your recommendations. These can be done anonymously or with your name and address or hometown included. Submittals are needed by 1 October 2017.
1. Through Roads to the Great War, just publish in the comments section to this page.
2. Send it to me via email to: greatwar@earthlink.net
(For methods 1&2 I'll aggregate them with your name and seen them to Mr. Fountain.)
3. Send directly to Mr. Fountain at fountaine@abmc.gov
This is a chance for you to make a lasting contribution to the effort to honor the service and sacrifices of all those American who served in the war.
Mike Hanlon, Editor/Publisher
PS: Don't worry that someone else might have sent in the same quote. The commission needs to know if a quote is widely admired.
No fountains or water. They erode and have to be fixed all the time. Plus pets and people get in them often.
ReplyDeleteT. Morgan
"Young lads crying for their mothers as they went over the top." It's what my great Grandmother reported from the boys who came home.
ReplyDeleteFrom Secretary of War Newton Baker to MG William S. Graves upon receiving the mission to go to Siberia: "Watch your step; you will be walking on eggs loaded with dynamite."
ReplyDeletefrom John House
"Retreat? Hell, we just got here!"
ReplyDelete"I have only two men out of my company and 20 out of some other company. We need support, but it is almost suicide to try to get it here as we are swept by machine gun fire and a constant barrage is on us. I have no one on my left and only a few on my right. I will hold."
ReplyDeleteAuthor: 1st.Lt. Clifton B. Cates, USMC, at Soissons, 19 July 1918
I have found your American Army the most honorable of all our enemies. You have also been the bravest of our enemies and in fact the only ones who have attacked us seriously in this year’s battles. I therefore honor you, and, now that the war is over, I stand ready, for my part, to accept you as a friend.”
ReplyDelete—Chief of Staff for General v. Einem, commander of the Third German Army
thank for good post and sharing......
ReplyDeleteหนังตลก
"Today I can look back on those days and appreciate what they meant to me. Even now I relive the unforgettable days spent above the fields of France. What is life without memories?"
ReplyDelete"Nothing compares to the pleasures of flying in an open cock pit."
"There was always an element of fear deep down in every man seated there (in an SE5a), but very few allowed this feeling to come to the surface. Most men in the business faced the fact: 'that what is to be, will be.'"
William C. Lambert, 24 Squadron
The woods was a trackless jungle and there was Germans in trees, behind woodpiles, in ravines, hid in piles of stone. We had to advance tree to tree, looking all around to see where those shots were coming from. It was like playing Hide & Seek, only if you lost you were out for keeps. ---- Corporal Joseph E. Rendinell
ReplyDelete"I sometimes think if the Kaiser ever heard a good syncopated melody he would not take himself so seriously."
ReplyDelete--Noble Sissle, drum major of the Harlem Hellfighters regimental band
Willard Newton, a doughboy sailing with the 105th Engineers of North Carolina, wrote in his diary, "As the transport steams slowly out of Hoboken it passes the statue of liberty, and though we are all supposed to be below deck several of us fellows slip up and take a last look at the statue and then go back below. The fellows congregate in small groups, some singing songs that have become popular since the war, and others are discussing the journey that lays before them. We are leaving the States to return no more until our task "over there" is finished." [From http://behindtheirlines.blogspot.com/2017/06/transport.html]
ReplyDeleteAlice Corbin, American writer:
ReplyDelete"Recreate us, O America.
Not from the smoke and the fever and fret, not from
the welter of furnaces, from the fierce melting-pot of
cities;
But from the quiet fields, from the little places, from
the dark lamp-lit nights – from the plains, from the
cabins, from the little house in the mountains,
Breathe strength upon us:
And give us the young men who will make us great."
(more at https://behindtheirlines.blogspot.com/2017/04/litany-of-war.html)
From Scott's "The American Negro in the World War":
ReplyDelete“What has the American Negro got out of the war? Time alone can bring the full answer to this sweeping question. To some of the manifold implications which the query itself involves, however, some answers can already be made. For one thing, the war has brought to the American Negro a keener and more sharply defined consciousness, not only of his duties as a citizen, but of his rights and privileges as a citizen of the United States. The colored people of America performed to the utmost of their ability the duties which the war imposed upon all citizens, black and white alike."
"They died as they lived--heroes."
ReplyDelete"Come on, you sons of bitches, do you want to live forever?"
ReplyDeleteSergeant Major Daniel Joseph "Dan" Daly, USMC, Battle of Belleau Wood
"It seemed like a good idea at the time."
ReplyDelete"Lafayette, we are here." Pershing
ReplyDeleteGeneral DeGoutte "Can the Americans really hold?"
ReplyDeleteColonel Preston Brown "General, these are American regulars. In a hundred and fifty years they have never been beaten. They will hold."
No one is more anti-war than those in uniform, for who has more to lose in battle.
ReplyDeleteBill Lewis, US Navy Combat Photographer, Ret.
Founder/Producer of "The Pearl Harbor Day Troop Train"
Ode of Remembrance:
ReplyDelete"They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them."
I don't much like using the British ones, since they aren't about the Doughboys.
DeleteIt is important to remember Moina Michael's poem "We Shall Keep the Faith" in response to "In Flanders Fields," and the resulting remembrance poppy! http://www.greatwar.co.uk/poems/moina-michael-we-shall-keep-faith.htm
ReplyDelete