With part of the long-awaited World War II Memorial in the
background, Roderick "Rod" V. Bell, the assistant project manager, said the sad
thing about the official dedication of the tribute to "the greatest generation"
on May 29 is that "a lot of veterans that won't be able to see this memorial."
Photo by Rudi Williams
(Click photo for screen-resolution image); high-resolution image available.
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"More than a thousand World War II veterans die every day," said the 31-year-
old construction engineer, who earned a bachelor's degree in that field at
Norfolk State University in 1996. But at least, he said, many now-deceased
veterans of the war knew they were being honored at last. "Some of them saw the
memorial as we constructed it before they passed," Bell said.
"This weekend – Memorial Day weekend -- is going to mark a great event," said
Bell, a first lieutenant in the Army Reserve's 3rd Battalion, 111th Air Defense
Artillery, with headquarters in Portsmouth, Va. "Thousand of veterans are going
to come from all over the country to see this memorial."
Bell is executive officer of Bravo Battery and is slated to take command of the
outfit on July 1. As the memorial's assistant project manager, he is
responsible for overseeing subcontractors and for managing, controlling and
handling some of the finances, among other responsibilities.
The official dedication of the imposing memorial is May 29, but the memorial
opened to the public in late April. Thousands of visitors from around the world
have been coming every day since then.
"This is a big tourist season, and a lot of people haven't seen this memorial,
which has taken two years to build," said the son of a Vietnam veteran who
retired from the Air Force as a master sergeant. "The numbers of people who
come daily have been by the thousands."
Bell said some visitors are overwhelmed by the majesty of the mammoth and
imposing structure that's nestled in between the soaring obelisk of the
Washington Monument and the splendor of the Lincoln Memorial. Surrounding a
rainbow pool inlaid with several fountains, the memorial is an impressive 384
feet long and 279 feet wide.
Authorized by Congress in 1993, construction began in September 2001. The
memorial is encircled by a "roll call of the nation," represented by 56 large
pillars representing the U.S. states and territories and the District of
Columbia.
"A lot of people come from the U.S. territories, and they're very impressed by
the fact that the monument has the territories on it," Bell said. "Last week a
guy sat there at least 30 minutes rubbing the Guam area, and crying," Bell
said. "I don't know his ties with World War II, but to see him sitting there
crying was very touching."
As he strolled around the memorial, Bell pointed to "The Freedom Wall" and
explained "there are 4,000 gold stars commemorating more than 400,000 Americans
who gave their lives in the war." Each star represents 100 American war dead,
he explained.
Bell called the World War II Memorial "one of the best on the (National) Mall."
"The architecture of it, the symbolism – it gives you a different feeling,"
Bell noted. "While we were constructing this, it was amazing to see the people
lined up at the fences 'oohing' and 'aahing.'"
Bell said the spectators would ask, "When is it going to be open? When can we
come in?" He said some of the people he talked to during the construction
thought building a memorial honoring World War II veterans "is a great thing
and a great project," and that they often seemed impressed that an Army
reservist would have such a major role in the memorial's construction.
"After I told them that I'm a reservist, they would ask, 'How do you feel that
you've served on active duty and now you're helping build a memorial that's
going to be here for generations and generations? Your kids and their kids are
going to see it.'
"You just get that special feeling, 'Man! This is a real special thing here,'"
Bell said. "This is something that was long overdue."
Bell said it's an emotional experience to hear visitors as they marvel at the
architecture. "Some of them have symbolic ties to the memorial," he noted.
"They could be veterans, or just people whose parents may have been a veteran
of World War II. Some of them leave flowers, pictures and other items at the
pillar inscribed with the name of the state they're from. Watching them gives
you a feeling that you can't describe."
He added that some people throw money in the water fountains, but officials ask
them not to, because the coins clog the pumping system.
Officials estimate that between 250,000 and 300,000 people will attend the
dedication ceremony, Bell said. "Overall, the District of Columbia is expecting
more than 1.2 million for the Memorial Day weekend," he added.
Among the mass of humanity converging at the memorial will be thousands of
school children whom Bell said don't know much about World War II. "You can
teach them part of history here," he noted. "We have numerous school field
trips coming here, and I hear the National Park Service teaching them, showing
them and explaining to them what this represents.
"So this memorial can teach the younger generation about World War II and what
it meant, how many people died for this country and what we stood for," Bell
continued. "On the other hand, you have some people who say this memorial
doesn't really say much and won't teach this generation anything. So you've got
people on both sides of the fence. But I think the majority of them are glad
this has been built."
Bell emphasized that in his view, the World War II Memorial is a very important
monument to the nation. "A lot of kids can learn from it if they get the chance
to come here and actually see it," he noted.
He said building the memorial was a mammoth task, and that the construction
crew worked night and day to get it ready for the dedication. "We're still
doing minor things – touching up little things to make sure everything goes
smoothly on Saturday," Bell said.
But some of the workers will never see the fruits of their labor, Bell said.
"Some of our close co-workers have passed away," he noted. "One of our
superintendents (James R. McCloseky) passed away and never got to see this
memorial finished. But I'm quite sure he's watching from above and smiling down
on some of the work he did on this job."
Bell found out that he would be working on the memorial while he was among more
than 35,000 reservists providing homeland defense and civil support services
while serving on active duty during Operation Noble Eagle. "It was a great
feeling knowing that I was going to be building a memorial for military
veterans," he said. "It was something I really wanted to be a part of."
As construction projects go, Bell said, he's seen bigger ones in terms of
dollars and cents, but none that seemed to matter nearly as much. "I've done
big jobs before, and moneywise, this isn't as big," he said. "But the
significance of what it means is more than I imagined."
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