Soldiers of the Korean War Memorial - Washington, DC
Posted by: 
YoSam.
N 38° 53.264 W 077° 02.846
18S E 322421 N 4306310
19 larger than life figures of soldiers, 14 Army, 3 Marines, 1 Navy Corpsman, 1 Air Force Forward Observer.
Waymark Code: WMWB8K
Location: District of Columbia, United States
Date Posted: 08/07/2017
Views: 11
County of display: District of Columbia
Location of display: Daniel French Dr., SW & Independence Ave. SW, Washington
Artist: Frank Chalfant Gaylord, II, 1925- , sculptor
Louis Nelson, sculptor
Architect: Henry Arnold, landscape architect
Architect: Cooper-Lecky Architects, architectural firm
Proper Description:
"Memorial comprised of 19 free-standing stainless steel figures, a mural wall, and a circular reflecting pool. The 19 figures include 14 army soldiers, 3 marines, 1 navy medic, and 1 Air Force forward. Each is shrouded in wind-blown ponchos. The figures appear to be emerging from a field. At the apex of the field is a circular Pool of Remembrance. Behind them is the memorial wall, etched with over 2,000 images of veterans, including Caucasians, African Americans, Hispanics, Asian Americans, and Native Americans, who were part of the land, sea, and air forces in Korea between 1950 and 1953. Another wall lists the 22 countries that sent troops to Korea." ~ Smithsonian American Art Museum
Remarks:
"The memorial commemorates the more than 1.5 million Americans serving in the Korean War, including the 54,246 U.S. military personnel and 58,000 South Korean military personnel who died.
The idea for the monument originated with a group of Korean War veterans, including members of the 25th Infantry, who founded the Korean War Veterans Association in 1985. On Oct. 28, 1986, President Ronald Reagan approved a resolution authorizing the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, American Battle Monuments Commission to erect a Korean War memorial on the mall and allocated $1 million in seed money. An initial design contest was won in 1989 by a 4 member team of architects and faculty members at Pennsylanvia State College School of Architecture (John Paul Lucas, Veronica Burns Lucas, Eliza Pennypacker Oberholtzen, and Don Alvaro Leon). They subsequently withdrew their design, after significant modifications were requested.
Architects Cooper-Lecky then took over and supervised the design and construction of the memorial, reducing the number of statues from 38 to 19, and placing the figures in a scattered pattern in a field of juniper bushes (rather than a single line of figures as originally proposed). Frank Gaylord designed and modeled the 19 stainless steel figures; Louis Nelson designed and executed the granite wall mural" ~ Smithsonian American Art Museum
Corrections to text: Marines and Navy should be capitalized, and should read 1- Navy Corpsmen...Navy does NOT have medics. And the Air Force should be Forward Observer...forward is half a title.