Sitting in the ground-floor office of Gilbane Construction on a sunny spring day, Rawle Sawh explained to me how the company builds 3D simulations for construction projects. On his computer, he showed me a 3D model they made for a museum in incredible detail, down to individual pipe fittings. The locations of every duct, sprinkler line and pipe is plotted out. Using the computer mouse, he can dial down through every layer of the building foot by foot.
The idea is that if you measure twice you only have to cut once, as the old carpenter's adage goes. These 3D models can be viewed in virtual reality (VR) and altered as needed so entire skyscrapers can be planned in exacting detail before construction begins. But I was there to talk to him about another project they are working on, one geared towards helping elderly and disabled veterans.
Another Gilbane employee, Lucas Richmond, had a World War II veteran relative who was able to take an honor flight to Washington D.C. to experience the war memorials in person before he passed away.
"One night my wife and I were watching the news and the local vets that because of age or not ready mentally just got bussed to local memorials which after the experience my step-grandfather had with the honor flight we thought was kind of depressing, my wife asked why can’t you help them and build a video game that could help them with virtual reality?" Lucas told Connecting Vets.
Lucas first modeled the Vietnam Memorial in 3D using the Unreal engine which is popular with video game creators and is used for video games like Fortnite.
At Gilbane's office in Manhattan, I got to experience this firsthand having never used VR before. I donned a headset made by Oculus and Rawle handed me two controllers. The Vietnam Memorial (which I've visited in person several times) came to life before my eyes. There were even birds chirping over the sound system. Using the controllers I could move around the memorial in three-dimensional space, and quickly moved to find a specific name on the wall.
I don't know anyone personally who died in the war, having been born in the 1980s, but I took a look for a friend's brother who was killed in 1969 on the DMZ with North Vietnam. I soon located it on the virtual black slab of granite. The detail is so real that you feel like you can reach out and touch it. The Vietnam War Memorial, while controversial during its initial construction, is arguably the most haunting and humbling of America's war memorials.
For Rawle and Lucas, modeling the Vietnam War Memorial is a way to help share this experience with elderly and disabled veterans who might never be able to travel and see it in person. Lucas has also modeled the World War II memorial and is in the process of optimizing it for use.
"We have partnered with the Stars and Stripes Honor Flight to help with some of their events to help local veterans and have started to reach out and give this simulation to anyone that can install it to experience it. We can set up events in our offices or just distribute for those that own" a headset, Lucas said.
"I was asked once how much" they would charge for such an experience, Lucas told Connecting Vets. "I would never charge for something like this, so people can just email me and I can help them install as needed."
Reach Lucas Richmond via email at LRichmond@gilbaneco.com.
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Reach Jack Murphy: jack@connectingvets.com or @JackMurphyRGR.