On June 12, 2007, a new memorial will be dedicated in Washington, D.C. Almost 20 years have passed from concept to reality, 14 years since then-President Clinton signed a bill donating land.

The monument for the memorial is a replica of the “Goddess of Democracy” statue erected by the Chinese students at Tiananmen Square. The memorial is the Victims of Communism Memorial, dedicated to the over 100 million people who were killed in Communism’s wars, revolutions, and purges.

The idea for the project came to [Lee] Edwards – once an aide to Barry Goldwater and now a fellow at the Heritage Foundation – two months after the Berlin Wall fell in 1989. “I was having Sunday brunch with my wife and one of my daughters,” he says. “We were concerned that people didn’t seem interested in discussing the crimes of Communism, and that a general amnesia was settling in everywhere.” On a paper napkin, he jotted down “memorial – victims of communism” and stuffed it into his pocket.

Originally planned along the lines of the Holocaust Museum, the lack of donations forced them to a smaller project. The monument will be in a small triangular park where Avenue G intersects New Jersey Avenue. When deciding upon an appropriate statue, they thought about trying to build a Gulag replica, the Berlin Wall, or a boat such as those used by those fleeing communist oppression. In the end, they decided on the Tiananmen Square statue as something that would be easily recognizable by many, and also stand as an indictment against China’s continuing commitment to Communist ideals (the Chinese government “expressed concerns … to Bush Administration officials,” but the design stands).

The sculptor, Thomas Marsh, agreed to work for free. “When I saw the courage of those students at Tiananmen Square, I made a vow that I would try to rebuild their statue,” he says. He produced a version that now stands in San Francisco’s Chinatown and has prepared castings of it for other sites. The version that will appear in the Victims of Communism Memorial is an armature, which means that it’s derived from his original but also contains unique qualities. “It’s the biggest of the bunch and the facial features look more like the one the students made,” says Marsh.

Representative Tom Lantos (D) will give the keynote address at the dedication. President G.W. Bush has been invited to speak.

h/t: Opinion Journal

Sgt Hook tells us a story about an Afghan hero, who saved lives.
He got it from an email sent to him by a longtime reader. The email was from an Army Captain currently in Afghanistan.

Anyway, there is this one Afghan that we call Rambo. We have actually given him a couple of sets of the new ACU uniforms (the new Army digital camouflage) with the name tag RAMBO on it. His entire family was killed by the Taliban and his home was where our base currently resides. So this guy really had nowhere else to go. He has reached such a level of trust with US Forces that his job is to stand at the front gate and basically be the first security screening. Since he can’t have a weapon, he found a big red pipe. So he stands there at the front gate in his US Army ACU uniform with his red pipe. If a vehicle approaches the gate too fast or fails to stop he slams his pipe down on their hood. Then once the gate is lifted the vehicle moves on the 2nd gate where the US Army MP’s are. So he’s like the first line of defense.

Last Thursday at 0930 hrs a Toyota Corolla packed with explosives and some Jack Ass that thinks he has 72 Virgins waiting for him approached the gate. When he saw Rambo he must have recognized him and known the gig was up. But he needed to get to that 2nd gate to detonate and take American lives. So he slams his foot on the gas which almost causes the metal gate to go up but mostly catches on the now broken windshield.

Rambo fearlessly ran to the vehicle, reached thru the window and jerked the suicide bomber out of the vehicle before he could detonate and commenced to putting some red pipe to his heathen ass. He detained the guy until the MP got there.

Go read it. It won’t take long, and it’s worth your time.

Today’s Opinion Journal online has an editorial by Daniel Henninger about Jim Hake’s Spirit of America.

I love his subtitle: “Cut and Run is Not in Their Vocabulary.”

It is ironic that despite the years of our daily engagement in these places, the “information age” has brought us so little knowledge about the people of Iraq and Afghanistan. Psychologically, much of America has already cut and run from these two countries.

Some Americans, though, simply won’t.

In April 2004, this column told the story of Spirit of America, organized by Jim Hake, to provide citizen-supported aid to the troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. Then in May 2005 this space was given over to an account of American businesswomen working to help women in post-Taliban Afghanistan.

Here in the U.S., the political new year will fill up fast enough with politicians and pundits offering ways to unwind and spindle the commitments America made to Iraq and Afghanistan. So this seemed a good moment to revisit the folks running Spirit of America and the Business Council for Peace. They’re not going to leave.

(snip)

With the SonoSite ultrasound company, SoA delivered handheld ultrasound machines to the primary hospital in Al Qaim, Iraq, near the Syrian border. “Before this,” said Mr. Hake, “they were using seashells to listen to the sounds of a pregnant mother and baby; the Marines couldn’t believe it.”

Jim Hake says Spirit of America’s contributions have fallen off since 2004 owing to general fatigue with Iraq, “but under the circumstances people continue to be quite generous.” An end-of-the-year funding request raised more than $150,000. “The emails we send to donors are not a good-news operation,” says Mr. Hake. “We don’t want to put a happy face on it. But the information is more encouraging than what they typically hear. The destroyed projects are hardly good news, but there are lots of guys and gals in the military there who are not just marking time, who want to see this work.”

If you’re looking for groups to support with your hard-earned dollars, after you’ve sent your share to Valour-IT, think about Spirit of America and the Business Council for Peace.

A La, over at Blonde Sagacity, has a Memorial Day post that includes suggestions of how to put the “Memorial” back into the day. She also lists out various wars since WWI, with number of deaths.

Paying homage to all who made the ultimate sacrifice for this country (always, but especially today):
1917-1918 World War I 116,708
1941-1945 World War II 408,306
1945 Okinawa US Navy 5,000, USMC/Army 8,000
06 Jun 1944 D-Day 1,465
1945 Iwo Jima 6,503
1950-1953 Korean War 54,246
1957-1975 Vietnam War 58,219
1983 Beirut Lebanon 241
1990-1991 Persian Gulf, Op Desert Shield/Storm 363
2001-Present Operation Enduring Freedom, Afghanistan 295
2003-Present Operation Iraqi Freedom, Iraq 2,464

She also links to a Memorial Day Quiz. (I got 7/9)

Capt Ed remembers an Operation Iraqi Freedom Medal of Honor winner.

Fearing the enemy would overrun their defenses, Sergeant First Class Smith moved under withering enemy fire to man a .50 caliber machine gun mounted on a damaged armored personnel carrier. In total disregard for his own life, he maintained his exposed position in order to engage the attacking enemy force. During this action, he was mortally wounded. His courageous actions helped defeat the enemy attack, and resulted in as many as 50 enemy soldiers killed, while allowing the safe withdrawal of numerous wounded soldiers.

Citizen Smash posts a letter from the mother of a fallen hero.

God may have been ready to call my Marine to heaven on April 18, 2004 but I wasn’t, and I can’t wait till the day we will be together again. Rick is a hero to me and all that knew him and loved him. He left behind a legacy that will endure forever. A Marine camp in Iraq was named for him (Camp Gannon). An award for Leadership to the top graduate at the Naval Academy carries his name. These are two reminders of his dedication and sacrifice to his country, but there are thousands of personal reminders that are seared in my heart forever.

His Memorial Day post will be up later.

And Sgt Hook brings it home with memories of a career-long buddy and former roommate, who volunteered to help rescue 4 Navy Seals trapped and surrounded on a mountaintop in Afghanistan. MSgt Tre Ponder was in the ‘Stan for training, not duty, but he went anyway, and died with most of the rest of the rescuers and rescued when the helicopter crashed.

Most of the crewdogs could be found at our place on the weekends where we would bar-b-que meat from the commissary and share war stories over several cold beers. The old adage of “working hard and playing hard” certainly was our mantra, and nobody worked harder than Tre.

Tre could always be counted on, with his easy going, dedicated attitude you never doubted that he’d come through. He always did, and usually with a “shit eating” grin on his face.

Some of the fondest memories from my days as a crewdog involve Tre Ponder.

When our tour on the ROK was over, we went our separate ways, I to Italy, Jay to Georgia, and Tre to Kentucky. I ran into Tre five years later, after my Italian adventures, when I moved to Kentucky. He and his then pregnant wife helped me move into my apartment, lending me some tools and a ladder. Though a little older and now a family man, Tre was still that same old easy going southern boy that you could count on.

Update:
I just popped back over to Smash’s site and read his official Memorial Day post.

Every year, two days before Memorial Day, hundreds of Boy and Girl Scouts from all over San Diego County converge on Fort Rosecrans to honor these veterans by placing a single American flag in front of every gravestone and internment marker – all 85,000 of them.

After the opening ceremony, I grabbed a bundle of flags and rushed ahead of the torrent of Scouts, towards the far end of the cemetery. I had some people that I needed to visit. (snip)

My final planned stop was the resting place of Lieutenant Thomas Mullen Adams, my brother’s friend who was killed in a tragic helicopter accident in the opening hours of Operation Iraqi Freedom. I arrived at Tom’s grave just ahead of the leading edge of the scouts, and reverentially planted the flag. We had a few moments of quiet before the masses arrived, so I told Tom about Grant’s wife and new baby, and their new home in Hawaii. (snip)

I stood up and walked a few feet away while the scouts passed through, taking only a few seconds to methodically place a flag on each grave, salute, and move on.

A man, one of the scoutmasters, paused in front of Tom’s grave. “He’s just pining?” he said, “What does that mean?”

“It’s a joke.” I told him. “It’s a line from Monty Python’s ‘dead parrot sketch.’ You know: ‘E’s not dead, e’s just pining for the fjords.’”

“Oh!” he said. “Did you know him?”

“Yes, he’s my brother’s friend; they served in the Navy together.” I told him the whole story;” (snip)

I could see it on the man’s face, something had changed. These weren’t just tombstones anymore, they were real people.

Let’s remember that, if nothing else. These honored dead, these hometown heroes, were real people. They lived, loved, and laughed, and because they served, we are free to live, love and laugh. May we also serve as honorably as they did, in whichever way we choose to serve.