Disabled Veterans memorial to be built in Washington D.C.

[MORTARDUDE]

http://www.washtimes.com/metro/20040...5340-7069r.htm

Disabled veterans site expecting final approval

By Jon Ward
THE WASHINGTON TIMES

A national memorial dedicated to the 2.3 million disabled U.S. veterans today will pass one of its final planning stages.
The federal National Capital Planning Commission is expected to approve the construction of the American Veterans Disabled for Life Memorial after reviewing design plans, said Alan Harwood, one of the memorial's planners.
The $60 million project is privately funded by Disabled Veterans' LIFE Memorial Foundation and by Disabled American Veterans.
The memorial will be located at Washington Avenue and Second Street SW, one block south of the Mall and one block west of Rayburn House Office Building. Currently, a portion of C Street intersects the site. Nearly a third of the memorial's cost will go toward relocating C Street.
Construction is scheduled to begin next spring.
From an architect's perspective, the memorial is "pretty exciting because it's really going to, along with a few other things, contribute to that end of the Mall," Mr. Harwood said.
Lois Pope, a philanthropist who heads the memorial foundation, has spearheaded the effort to have the memorial built. Mrs. Pope's foundation will hold a fund-raiser April 27 in New York City. The event will be hosted by NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw.
"These are the unsung heroes who protected freedom in American and ensured democracy for the world," Mrs. Pope said. "When this memorial is completed, it will be our gift not only to the millions of living veterans, but to all those who have gone before them, and tragically, those who are yet to come."
Mrs. Pope, the widow of National Enquirer founder Generoso Pope Jr. and a former Broadway performer, first approached the Department of Veterans Affairs about a memorial for disabled veterans in 1997.
While on Broadway in the early 1970s, Mrs. Pope had performed for a group of wounded soldiers and years later, after visiting the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, she began wondering why disabled veterans didn't have their own memorial.
She began writing letters to Secretary of Veterans Affairs Jesse Brown, who six months later agreed to help her lobby Congress for federal approval. President Clinton signed legislation authorizing the memorial in October 2000.
Mr. Brown died in 2002 of Lou Gehrig's disease. A disabled Vietnam veteran, he wrote a book titled "The Price of Their Blood: Profiles in Spirit," which details the lives of 10 disabled veterans. Proceeds from his book will go toward the construction of the memorial.
The number of wounded servicemen and women is on the rise compared with those killed in combat.
The ratio of the number of soldiers wounded to those killed in Iraq is 5 to 1, higher than in any other U.S. war. That ratio was 2 to 1 from the Revolutionary War through World War II, and 3 to 1 during the Korean and Vietnam wars, according to U.S. Army records.
Improved medical care on the battlefield and better equipment such as body armor and Kevlar helmets have lowered the number of fatalities. But the latest weapon of choice for Iraqi insurgents ? roadside bombs detonated by remote control ? has contributed to the increase in amputees.
By the end of last month, 73 U.S. soldiers had been treated, either at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in the District or the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, for amputations, according to estimates provided by hospital spokespersons.
The 12-member commission is the federal government's planning agency in the District and surrounding counties in Maryland and Virginia.