Mark your calendars! The date of the groundbreaking ceremony for the National Desert Storm and Desert Shield Memorial has been confirmed.
According to the National Desert Storm Memorial Association, the ceremony will take place on July 14 beginning at 10 a.m. at the SW corner of Constitution Avenue and 23rd Street NW in Washington, D.C.
"As the Director of the Planning and Design Team, I along with the rest of our organization, am ecstatic to advance through the final phase of design approval in collaboration with our architectural and creative team. Most notably, we are exceedingly grateful to the National Park Service for allowing us to ceremoniously break ground prior to final design approval, which we aim to obtain in less than a year,” said retired Army Lt. Col. Kyle B. Leggs of the NDSMA.
In 1991, America and its international allies came together to successfully oppose and eject Iraq’s occupying forces from Kuwait in a mission known as Desert Shield and Desert Storm.
The memorial is planned for a site near the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Its tentative design would be a half-circle representative of the so-called left hook used by American ground forces to cut off Iraqi troops in the Saudi desert during the conflict.
In December 2014, President Barack Obama signed the memorial’s enabling legislation. In March 2017, President Donald Trump signed the law authorizing it to be built near the National Mall in an Area 1 location. In June 2018, a site located in close proximity to the Lincoln Memorial and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial received approval.
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Private funding is being used to construct the memorial, which is expected to cost around $40 million. Donations can be made to the National Desert Storm War Memorial Association. at ndswm.org.
Reach Julia LeDoux at Julia@connectingvets.com.
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