Highlights from the First Illumination Ceremony for A Soldier's Journey at the National World War One Memorial

Last month, on 13 September, a magnificent ceremony was conducted in Washington, DC, to—in effect—unveil Sabin Howard's sculpture A Soldier's Journey—the centerpiece of the National Memorial—for the American people. A video for the entire event can be found HERE. For our readers I'd also like to present some of the visual and spoken highlights of the event. MH

Click on Images to Enlarge
Display=580px, Enlarged=1000px

Opening of the Ceremony

During this endeavor, I've often thought about the writer of the Book of Hebrews, when he said we are surrounded by a Great Cloud of Witnesses. Today, we are surrounded by that great cloud of World War I  veteran witnesses.

Terry Hamby, Chairman WWI Centennial Commission

A Doughboy Band Provided the Music

Once upon a time in America, 4.7 million American families sent their sons and daughters to fight a war that would change the world.  Tonight we will honor them.

Dan Dayton, Executive Director WWI Centennial Commission

Holy God, hallow this ground and ceremony. . .

Rev. Dr. Margaret Grun Kibben, Chaplain U.S. House of Representatives

Edwin Fountain Addresses the Audience

In 2012, when we began the process of creating this memorial, we had four goals. First and foremost to give World War I an emotional resonance that has for too long absent in our national memory, by giving testament to the courage and accomplishments of American men and women who served in the Great War and the millions more who served at home and by conveying the scale of sacrifice of the more than 200,000 who returned home broken in body or spirit. And the 116,516 who never returned at all.

Second, to create a memorial that was neither too somber or too triumphal that acknowledged the war.  

Next, to create a memorial with a dignity and grandeur equal to that of other war memorials in the Nation's capital.

And lastly, to integrate and harmonize this memorial in a living  breathing urban park.

I believe we have succeeded.

A Soldier's Journey in Daylight

[Further, artist] Sabin Howard has created a sculptural image of service and sacrifice of uncommon emotional power that speaks in common to veterans of all wars. Then, by honoring veterans who served more than a century ago, and are no longer with us, we told those who serve today that one day one hundred years from  now they, to, will be remembered. Finally, we created a War Memorial that is embedded with a call to peace in the lines by Archibald MacLeish inscribed on the reverse of the sculpture wall. [Text below.]

Edwin Fountain, Vice-Chairman WWI Centennial Commission

A Soldier's Journey, The Beginning

This memorial is like a wedding ring. It is a symbol of honor and fidelity, a Commitment which has remained  unbroken for nearly a century between this nation and those who served in the First World War.

Joseph Weishaar Lead Designer, National WWI Memorial

Sculptor Sabin Howard Addresses the Audience

This memorial is about us. We the people. It is a project that represents the Everyman, the ones who make this country possible. . . This memorial clearly defines what we the people in World War I looked like. A Soldier's Journey represents us from a moment in history called the war to end all wars, and a representation and a statement about who we were a hundred years and ago and who we are now at this very moment. . . It is in service of the veterans today and the veterans that are no with us. .  . This sculpture is for them.

Every single soldier, nurse, child on this wall represents the heroic nature of those humans and people who were affected by the war. They are all heroes. . . This sculpture is dedicated to you, the men and women and families who have given everything physically and mentally in service of their country. 

Sabin Howard, Sculptor of A Soldier's Journey

A Soldier's Journey, Detail

I'm reminded of the words of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who served his country during the Great War as Assistant Secretary of the Navy and once said, " Those who have long enjoyed such privilege as we enjoy forget in time that men have died to win them."

Jeffrey Reinbold,  Washington, DC,  Supt., National Parks Service

A Soldier's Journey, The Return

"The Young Dead Soldiers Do Not Speak"

by Archibald MacLeish

Nevertheless they are heard in the still houses: who has not heard them?

They have a silence that speaks for them at night and when the clock counts.

They say, We were young. We have died. Remember us.

They say, We have done what we could but until it is finished it is not done.

They say, We have given our lives but until it is finished no one can know what our lives gave.

They say, Our deaths are not ours: they are yours: they will mean what you make them.

They say, Whether our lives and our deaths were for peace and a new hope or for nothing we cannot say: it is you who must say this.

They say, We leave you our deaths. Give them their meaning.

We were young, they say. We have died. Remember us.

Read  by Libby O'Connell,  Commissioner  WWI Centennial, to conclude the event