[Shannon Ricles] All right, well, hi everyone.
Thank you for joining us today
for The National World War II Memorial -
The Living Room of Washington DC.
It's featuring our guest speaker, Holly Rotondi.
I'm Shannon Ricles,
the Education and Outreach Coordinator
for Monitor and Mallows Bay National Marine Sanctuary,
and I'm going to be your host today.
And joining me as my cohost is Mark Losavio,
the Media and Outreach Coordinator
also for Monitor
and Mallows Bay national marine sanctuaries.
This webinar today is brought to you
by NOAA'S Monitor National Marine Sanctuary
in collaboration with the North Carolina
Office of State Archaeology.
Partnering since 1975,
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and protect the hallmarks
of North Carolina's underwater
cultural heritage, shipwrecks.
These shipwrecks hold information
about the ever-changing technologies
and cultural and physical landscapes.
They serve as a uniquely accessible underwater museum
and a memorial to generations
of mariners who lived, died,
worked, and fought off our shores.
This is one of the many webinars
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for the Submerged North Carolina Webinar Series
in collaboration with
the North Carolina Office of State Archaeology.
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and two marine national monuments
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So today we welcome Holly Rotondi,
The Executive Director of the Friends
of The National World War II Memorial
to tell us more about the memorial
and how it was created.
But first to get us started,
we are going to be showing a video
that is narrated by Tom Hanks,
that's gonna walk you through the memorial.
So without further ado,
and this is a little loud,
so, if you have your speakers turned up,
you might want to turn them down.
We can't do anything on the sound,
so just be prepared.
(upbeat music)
[Tom Hanks] Thanks to all of you,
there's an important new memorial on the mall
in Washington DC,
The National World War II Memorial.
Designed by Friedrich St. Florian,
it creates a special place
to commemorate the sacrifice
and celebrate the victory of World War II.
At the same time,
it enhances a space that is already special,
our National Mall.
The Memorial covers more than seven acres,
two-thirds of it, landscaping in water.
It's built with bronze and granite,
some 17,000 pieces of granite
from South Carolina, Georgia,
North Carolina, California, and Brazil.
The memorial commemorates,
the battles of World War II
and the people who fought them.
But it's much more than a memorial
to hardship and gunfire,
sacrifice and heroism.
It's a celebration of the spirit
that brought all Americans together,
black and white,
native American and first-generation immigrant,
soldier and factory worker,
on the battlefront and on the home front.
They've been called the greatest generation
that ever lived.
And Americans everywhere
have helped create this memorial
to say, thank you.
Come with me and discover the special significance
that's built into the granite and bronze
of this memorial.
We'll enter by the ceremonial walkway
that leads from 17th street.
To your left and right, you'll see flagpoles,
the base of each flagpole bears an inscription,
and the seals of the military services and merchant marine.
Inset in the balustrades to your left and right,
are 24 sculptured bronze panels by Raymond Kaskey,
whose studio created all the sculpture for the memorial.
The 12 on the north to your right,
depict the Atlantic Front,
the 12 on the south, show the Pacific Front.
Most of the panels were inspired by historical photos.
They depict not just battles,
but the all out mobilization
of America's agricultural,
industrial, military
and human resources
that ultimately led to victory.
When you reach the Memorial Plaza,
you'll see a restored and improved Rainbow Pool
with its historic fountains working again
for the first time in decades.
Embracing the Plaza are 56 pillars
that represent each of the individual states,
territories and the District of Columbia.
The pillars are joined together by a bronze rope
that symbolizes the bonding of the nation
in a common course.
Two bronze wreaths, one of Oak, and one of wheat,
symbolize America's role
as both the arsenal of democracy
and the bread basket of the world.
To the right and left are two memorial pavilions,
each 43 feet high.
The south pavilion commemorates the war in the Pacific
and the north, the war in the Atlantic.
At each pavilion four bronze column
support American Eagles
that hold a suspended laurel wreath
to memorialize the victory
of the World War II generation.
On the floor of each pavilion,
is the World War II victory medal.
Beyond the Rainbow Pool,
you'll see the Freedom Wall,
here we mark the price of freedom.
The field of 4,000 sculpted gold stars
commemorates the more than 400,000 Americans
who gave their lives.
The gold star has its own history.
During the war,
blue stars were displayed
to indicate family members serving in uniform,
the stars changed to gold
when a loved one was lost.
The pillars closest to the Freedom Wall,
occupying places of honor,
represent the original 13 states.
The rest are ranked in the order
in which they achieved statehood
or became part of the United States.
Every element of the World War II Memorial
works to a single purpose,
eloquently expressed in the engraving
of the announcement stone,
we passed at the ceremonial entrance.
Here in the presence of Washington and Lincoln,
one, the 18th century father
and the other, the 19th century
preserver of our nation,
we honor those 20th century Americans,
who took up the struggle during the Second World War
and made the sacrifices
to perpetuate the gift
our forefathers entrusted to us,
a nation conceived in liberty and justice.
(music-America the Beautiful)
[Shannon] All right, that was a wonderful video.
And now I'm going to share the screen
with you, Holly, and Holly will continue on
in giving us a presentation
on this beautiful memorial.
[Holly Rotondi] Great, thank you.
[Shannon] Yep.
[Holly] There we go.
Well, thank you so much
to NOAA's Monitor National Marine Sanctuary
for allowing me to join you all today.
I'm excited to share my enthusiasm and love
for this very special memorial.
I'm glad you got to have that beautiful introduction.
And now I'm just gonna start off by telling you
a little bit about why I titled this presentation,
"The Living Room of Washington DC."
It actually goes back quite a few years,
about 27 years ago,
I did a semester abroad in Rome, Italy,
and I went a couple of days early
and visited with some relatives
who I'd never met before.
But my cousin Sandro took me on a tour of Rome,
and he took me to Piazza Navona,
and he said something to me in Italian
and then translated for me.
And he said, "This is the living room of Rome,
this is where life happens in this city."
And you looked around and you saw people painting
and couples canoodling and children playing,
and it really was the living room of Rome
and where life was happening in Rome.
And so fast forward a decade,
and I visited the World War II Memorial
for the first time.
And I walked in that ceremonial entrance,
and I stood by the Rainbow Pool,
and I watched kids, running around a little bit,
people hugging,
World War II veterans being welcomed and applauded.
And that saying came into my head,
this is the living room of Washington DC
of the National Mall,
this is where life happens.
And this is the memorial
that celebrates more than any other,
that spirit of America and that we all enjoy
and just represents everything great
about this country and the people who live here.
So, it really resonated with me
and it's still to this day,
every time I visit the memorial,
which is quite frequently,
that is really preeminently
what comes into my mind.
So, I just wanted to explain a little bit about that.
Now, we have lots of resources
that we've shared with you
and separately with several books, our website,
where you can get really the history
of the long 17 year process
to get this memorial built,
it wasn't an easy go, but well worth it.
But I'm gonna really just share with you today
some stories about a few individuals
that played significant roles
in the building of the memorial.
So the first one is Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur of Ohio.
And we refer to her as the mother
of the World War II Memorial
and I'll share with you why.
But Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur,
she's the longest serving female member of Congress,
and she's someone who has always been
very in touch with her constituency.
And so back in 1987,
she was at a fish fry visiting with her constituents
in Jerusalem County, Ohio.
And she was conversing with just members
of her constituency there that fish fry,
and she heard a booming voice
come out of the crowd,
she didn't see who it was,
but she heard this voice yell out,
"Why isn't there a World War II Memorial in Washington DC?"
She said, she thought for a minute
and she said, "There is."
And he said, "Oh yeah, where?"
And she said, "The Iwo Jima Memorial."
And he said, "No, that's wrong,
that's the Marine Corps Memorial."
And she thought a little bit
and she said, "Well, there must be,"
and he said, "No, there's not."
So she later found out that that gentleman
was a World War II veteran named Roger Durbin.
And she met with him and she said,
well, I'm gonna go look into this
when I get back to Washington DC.
And she returned to Washington DC,
her office there,
she had her staff investigate
and of course they did come to the conclusion,
there is no national monument to World War II
here in our nation's capital.
And so she set about trying to make that happen.
And in 1987, she introduced legislation
to establish a World War II Memorial in Washington, DC,
it didn't pass.
She didn't give up,
she introduced more of that similar legislation
in 1989, 1991, and 1993.
And in 1993,
that legislation finally passed
to establish a World War II Memorial
here in our nation's capital.
So, we are so forever grateful
to the Congresswoman for her perseverance
and ensuring that this memorial
would take its proper place
in our nation's capital.
She's been a steadfast supporter of the memorial,
our nation's veterans to this day.
She's often seen at the World War II Memorial,
she's a huge advocate of our veterans
and we're eternally grateful
for everything she has done
to have this memorial take like part.
And then the second person I'd like to tell you
a little bit about is a gentleman
you've probably never heard of,
but his name is Ambassador Franklin Haydn Williams.
And we refer to him
as the father of the World War II Memorial.
Now Hayden's relationship with World War II
goes back to the first days
here in the United States.
He was actually a civilian contractor
on Midway Island on December 7th, 1941,
when the Japanese attacked,
not just Pearl Harbor,
but Midway, Wake island, Hong Kong,
and a number of other islands as well.
Ambassador Williams and his friends
were playing a game of touch football
when the Japanese attacked
and one of his friends was injured
and carried the disability from that injury
for the rest of his life.
So, Hayden was always very conscious
of the importance
of recognizing that generation.
He did enter the service,
he was a naval officer
and his job was repatriating
our POW's at the end of the war.
And eventually was appointed by President Nixon
to be the representative
for the Micronesian Status Negotiations,
with the title of ambassador,
which is why we call him Ambassador Williams.
So, he never forgot that generation
and what our nation owe to them.
And when he heard about the legislation
that had been passed
to build a World War II Memorial,
he really felt the need
to be a part of that process.
And so he lobbied for a position
on the American Battle Monuments Commission,
the organization that was charged
with the establishment of this memorial.
And so in 1994, he was appointed
to the American Battle Monuments Commission
by President Clinton
and then he was also named
as the chair of the committee
that would specifically be in charge
of the building of the World War II Memorial.
And he was a steadfast supporter
of the memorial advocating
for and defending the recommendations
of the American Battle Monuments Commission
for this memorial in 22 public hearings.
It was not an easy process,
but he was deeply committed to the memorial
and its establishment.
One of the greatest accomplishments and legacies
of Hayden Williams involvement in this project,
is the location of the World War II Memorial.
Here's a picture of the monumental core
of the National Mall from the Capitol
all the way to the Lincoln
behind the Washington Monument.
But it was not an easy quest
to have the World War II Memorial
take its proper place on the National Mall.
As you can see from the slightly grainy map,
it's an old map,
but the folks who were making the decision
about where this memorial would be,
were really trying to put it somewhere else.
And you can see all the red lines,
these were all the suggestions,
but there is that one red line
pointing to the Rainbow Pool
because when Hayden visited that site,
he knew that that's where it had to be.
You heard Tom Hanks read that beautiful eloquent statement
on the ceremonial stone
about the significance of the Lincoln Memorial,
the Washington Monument,
and to have that World War II Memorial
between those two significant memorials
was just for him critical
to the showing the significance
of what we were representing with this memorial.
So it wasn't an easy quest.
He fought many federal agencies,
but ultimately he succeeded
and they proposed to formally the site
in August '94, as you can see,
and it was eventually approved with conditions
of they had to lower the Rainbow Pool
to make sure that that vista
between the Lincoln Memorial
and the Washington Monument
would not be disturbed.
Of course, that's a very important historic vista.
And then again, this is the announcement stone
explaining the significance of that site,
which is critical to the entire design of the memorial.
The third individual I'm gonna tell you about
is Friedrich St. Florian.
And he's the Design Architect
of the World War II Memorial from Rhode Island.
This memorial was part of,
this design came about through a design competition
and Friedrich was the winning design.
And he was selected in 1997.
And for this, I'm gonna read to you
what Ambassador Hayden Williams
wrote about Friedrich St. Florian
on the 10th anniversary of the memorial.
Hayden wrote an essay
about his thoughts on the memorial.
And this is what he said about Friedrich.
"It has been said that the World War II Memorial
in many ways reflects the character of its designer,
Friedrich St. Florian.
He's a quiet man, full of grace and dignity,
a man of vision and great talent,
artistic in nature,
a scholarly man,
a student and teacher of architecture,
an Austrian by birth
having witnessed World War II as a boy.
Friedrich is now a long time citizen by choice,
believing strongly in the American cause,
he had a deep, emotional commitment
to finding a final design
worthy of the event and its sacrifices.
The commitment was readily apparent to all,
as an entrant in the open design competition,
he became immersed in the history of the war
and the National Mall."
Friedrich and Hayden Williams relationship
really helped this design move forward.
And during the 10th anniversary,
I did have the honor of attending a luncheon
with a number of individuals
who took part in the building
of the World War II Memorial.
Friedrich St. Florian was one of them,
and he stood up and he looked at Hayden
and he said, "Hayden, you were my fiercest critic,
but you became my mentor
and you became my friend."
And so, during that long process
to build the World War II Memorial,
it really reflects the relationships
that were built between
Friedrich St. Florian, the design architect,
and Hayden Williams,
who had a high expectation of this memorial
and what it would be,
and Friedrich met it in every way.
One of the things,
going back to that thing of
the living room of Washington DC,
one of the things that has always struck me,
and I don't know if it was done purposefully, to be honest,
but when I visited Rome,
going back to that Rome trip again
and visited the Vatican,
they talked about how the arms of the Vatican
were meant to be welcoming to all visitors.
And I feel like when you enter that memorial core,
the open air pillars are like
a welcoming to all visitors to the memorial.
And so that sense of that living room,
again, it's just very prominent for me.
And then the last person I wanted to talk about
is someone we all know and admire.
And it's Senator Bob Dole.
And I refer to him here
as the heart of the World War II Memorial.
And he really was,
we all know about his heroic service
during World War II
wounded veteran, his service,
his lifetime of service in the Senate,
advocating for veterans with disabilities
and all Americans with disabilities.
But his final mission
became visiting the world war II Memorial as well.
But before that,
he was critical to building the World War II Memorial.
In 1997, he was appointed to be the chairman
of the Memorial Fundraising Campaign
and he and Fred Smith, the CEO of FedEx,
they led one of the most successful
fundraising campaigns in history,
raising over $200 million
to build the World War II Memorial.
But for me,
what his most critical role in that process was,
was defending the memorial.
There were so many critics, lawsuits
trying to stop this memorial from being built.
And there was one group in particular
that called themselves
The National Coalition to Save Our Mall.
And they really felt like
there should be no more additions to the mall,
it should all be open green space.
And they really tried to stop
the memorial from being built.
And Bob Dole took an active voice
in countering those arguments.
And I placed here on the PowerPoint you can see,
one of the most common sayings of his was,
"We saved the mall and everything else in America
and around the world."
And he said, "We deserve this spot on the National Mall.
If any generation deserves to be here, we do."
And so, he was finally able to silence the critics,
and we were able to take that place on the mall.
And I just have here some of the pictures.
And as I mentioned, he really considered it,
his final mission of his life
to be at the memorial as much as possible,
and to greet as many veterans,
World War II veterans as possible
and welcome them to their memorial.
And you'll see this gentleman in yellow,
these two gentlemen in yellow,
they are World War II Memorial volunteers.
And if you are ever at the memorial and see a volunteer,
you'll hear them welcoming a World War II veteran
to their memorial, welcome to your memorial,
because that is one of the things that for veterans,
it is a place where they know
that they're celebrated
and remembered and honored.
And so it's a really special thing
to be able to welcome a World War II veteran
to their memorial.
But Bob Dole never stopped coming
almost to the end until he became too ill to join us.
But he was there meeting
with as many people as possible
And we are forever grateful for Senator Dole's role
in the building of that memorial.
Just so you can see here,
we had the groundbreaking,
you see Hayden Williams in the picture,
Congresswoman Kaptur, President Clinton.
Then here's a picture of when site work began,
you see Friedrich St. Florian
and Hayden Williams right here in the picture.
And then finally the World War II Memorial,
17 years after Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur
first introduced the legislation.
It was open to the public
and then a month later,
it was formally dedicated.
Sadly, Roger Durbin, the World War II veteran,
who spurred the effort to build this memorial
by questioning Congresswoman Kaptur,
he did not live to see
the dedication of the memorial.
Thankfully, his family was in attendance.
So, one of the other great legacies,
I just wanted to mention
of Ambassador Hayden Williams was that,
he really felt like once the memorial was built,
his job still wasn't done.
And so he founded my organization
that I work represent,
The Friends of The National World War II Memorial
to be a continuing commemorative
and education extension
to the World War II Memorial.
And so our mission is teaching the lessons of yesterday
to unite the generations of tomorrow.
And we try to accomplish this
through our commemorative programs
at the World War II Memorial
and we have a variety of educational programs as well.
We're actually also working, Congress passed
and President Obama signed legislation
authorizing the addition of a new element
to the World War II Memorial, FDR's D-Day prayer.
And so, but they said no federal funds may be used.
So the Park Service asked us
if we would take on that effort.
And that is something that we expect to be dedicated
in the summer of 2022, this summer.
I did wanna make one last note
before I hand it over to you
for any questions you might have.
But this gentleman you see in the picture saluting,
that's a Brigadier General, Charles McGee,
he's Tuskegee Airmen, he was 100,
he just passed away on Sunday at 102.
He was a great friend of our organization.
We have an award,
an annual unity award named for him,
and he just passed away.
So we're mourning his passing,
but grateful for his service,
his life, very special person.
If you wanna Google,
you'll see all the news and accolades
he's been receiving in the past several days,
but I just wanted to acknowledge that
and let his family know
that we are thinking of them
during this difficult time.
But I thank you for taking time
to listen to me this morning.
If you have any questions,
I'm happy to take them now.
[Shannon] All right, well, thank you, Holly.
We're going to change it back over to me.
And I'll turn my camera back on.
All right, well, that was a great presentation,
lots of great information in there.
Thank you so much for that.
Now, if you haven't downloaded
Holly's bio in the chat box,
please do so now,
inside that document,
you'll also find some links
to some of the information
that Holly has mentioned.
Also, if you have any questions,
please enter them into the chat box
and we'll begin asking them
and letting Holly answer them.
So, my first question, Holly,
that I see in the chat box is,
being a daughter of a World War II veteran,
who served in the Aleutians
before being sent to I'm sorry,
I gotta pop this out, hold on.
Okay, being a daughter of a World War II veteran
who served in the Aleutians
before being sent to Europe,
it was a dangerous place, but not much known.
Is there a plaque about the Aleutians,
Alaska in the World War II Memorial?
[Holly] Well, if you look at the fountains,
you can see them recognized,
there's different areas
where the battles took place
that are outlined in the Atlantic and Pacific Theaters,
so you can see that there.
But there's actually also
a National Park Service site
that highlights the history
of the war in the Aleutians as well.
And we did a four year,
75th anniversary commemoration,
where we marked every major battle
in which American troops took part
and those campaigns were part of that
commemoration as well.
[Shannon] Okay, thank you.
Being an educator,
you said that you do educational programs.
So I just had a question.
What are your educational programs that you offer?
[Holly] Sure, we have an Annual Summer Teachers Conference.
We bring teachers from all across the country
to Washington DC, each July
for a week long immersive program.
So we'll be having it again.
The last two years has been virtual
but we're actually gonna try to do
semi in-person this year,
do kind of a hybrid.
And then we also do
a monthly education virtual conference series.
So they're half day conferences,
three presentations from about
10:00 to 1:00 PM Eastern time,
the third Saturday of each month
from October through March.
So, we do those and they're usually feature,
one presenter is usually
a published author or expert,
some sort of educational expert.
Usually the second is a war orphan of World War II,
telling their story, their mom's story,
their family story.
And then the third presenter
is usually a World War II veteran.
[Shannon] Very good, all right.
Mark, do you see any questions you want to ask?
[Mark] Yes, I have a question.
You said that you were kind of inspired
by the Rome's living room.
And I was wondering if kind of the reverse,
if you've heard any like accolades or comments
by representatives from other nations
on the World War II Memorial.
[Holly] From other nations, that's interesting.
Well, I meet a lot of people
from a lot of different nations at the memorial
and to them, it is significant,
it's interesting during the 75th anniversary,
when we were marking every major battle,
we invited the Allied nations
from each of those battles
to take part so the embassies
and that was very important to them,
the Canadian, the Australia, the New Zealand,
the Russian, the Chinese,
like, so all of these Allied nations
were coming to the memorial,
especially during that four year period,
quite frequently
to take part in these commemorations
and it was very important for them.
I don't know if they verbalize anything specific
about the memorial itself,
but it was important for them,
their embassies, their nations,
to mark those occasions.
I think it's something where,
there's a lot of division
in the country, in the world,
and it's something where,
I think we can all agree
that this was a great moment
where the Allies came together
to really defeat authoritarianism,
fascism, racism.
And it's something that I think
all of those Allied nations
are proud of and wanna highlight,
and wanna remember.
So, I think it's important for those nations
to have that place here in Washington, DC.
[Mark] Thank you.
[Shannon] Yes, so Scott wrote, he said,
I saw a story recently
that the memorial is starting to show
some signs of aging.
Can you tell me more
and is there other ways
that he or others can help at all?
[Holly] Yeah, so thank you for mentioning that.
So, I'm down at the World War II Memorial a lot.
It's mostly pre pandemic with World War II veterans,
but taking pictures.
And at these commemorations,
I'm always taking pictures
of World War II veterans at their memorial.
And one of my pet peeves is,
I've always cringed a little because there's a,
what almost looks like black tar
on the tops of the pillars and things,
it's actually a calcification,
a bio growth that's been developing on the memorial.
The problem is, it's not easy to clean stone
of a National Memorial that, you know,
there's all sorts of testing and things,
so it's a little bit more complicated.
There's also been a really significant wearing down
of the mortar and the mortar joints
throughout the memorial,
which might seem aesthetic right now,
but if over time that's left unaddressed
and those stones start to shift,
it obviously becomes a much more complex problem
to resolve down the road.
And then there's also been a major issue
with the lighting system.
I think the National Park Service,
who are the caregivers of the memorial,
and I always wanna make sure I say right out front,
we have a great relationship
with the National Park Service,
they do such a tremendous job
in keeping the memorial operating on a daily basis.
But there have just been a number of issues
over the past decade, plus that have popped up,
'Cause they have a $12 billion maintenance backlog.
The Park Service is just overwhelmed,
not just financially,
but with personnel, not having
the personnel that can tackle these things.
And so they informed me
probably eight years ago
that the lighting system was failing
at the World War II Memorial,
and needed to be completely replaced.
And they anticipated,
it would be like a $500,000 project,
but they didn't have the funds
or the personnel to take it on,
and we didn't either.
And so we still have a failing lighting system,
at the memorial for almost a decade.
So, things like this,
we anticipate there are several million dollars
worth of initial projects
that really need to be addressed quickly.
There were cracks that developed in the memorial,
they do have a plan to address those.
We worked with Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur again,
committed to this memorial,
I mean, never wavering.
So she was concerned obviously,
and so she introduced legislation
for a commemorative coin
for the World War II Memorial.
And if it passes,
the sale of the coins,
the proceeds would go to friends,
solely for the purpose
of the maintenance of the memorial.
And so we're very hopeful that that will occur.
If anybody feels compelled to,
it's not easy to pass a commemorative coin,
nor should it be,
you have to have a super majority.
So you have to have 290 co-sponsors in the House,
and 67 in the Senate.
We actually have, I think,
almost 300 in the House,
so we've surpassed it
and it will go to committee.
But the Senate, we are at 33,
so we still need,
so if anyone feels compelled
to call their senator and ask them to support,
we would definitely appreciate it.
We're anxious to get
some of these things dealt with at the memorial
and make sure.
Especially, we're looking forward to 2026,
which is the 250th anniversary of America.
The Park Service is very busy,
making sure that Washington DC
and all of our sites are in pristine condition,
expecting hopefully, a lot of folks
coming to visit and celebrate
the birth of America.
And so we also want the World War II Memorial
to look it's best, not just for that,
but for all of our World War II veterans
who are leaving us quickly.
[Shannon] Okay, thank you.
Another question came in.
It says as the number of World War II veterans,
sadly diminishes,
do you find fundraising for your efforts
to be more difficult?
[Holly] No, I think because we have a focus
on preserving their legacy,
preserving their memories,
preserving those stories and our education,
we haven't had trouble, but of course,
all non-profits are always looking for support.
But I think we've had some great luck.
We, our education programs,
we've had the founder of Enterprise
was a World War II veteran actually.
And before he passed,
he made a significant contribution and honor,
and his children have continued those contributions.
So, I think World War II
was a special time in this country.
It's a time and those veterans.
I think that consciousness of knowing
that they're leaving us so quickly,
just increases the imperativeness
to do what we're doing now.
And so, thankfully we've had some great
individuals and organizations
that have wanted to support that effort
and to make sure we don't lose those stories.
[Shannon] Okay, Mark,
do you have any questions left
that you wanna ask?
[Mark] Yes.
I kind of wanted to pose a hypothetical,
but you were saying that it was very important
for the monument
to be in that particular location.
So my question is,
if for whatever reason that was not possible,
what would be the second best location
for the memorial?
[Holly] I honestly, I just don't think
any other site would have been
significant enough for that memorial
and that memorial wouldn't exist.
I mean, it exists and it's the way it is
because of the site,
it was designed around the Rainbow Pool.
But I will tell you,
one of the locations they were trying to push,
was I think Freedom Plaza
where the World War I is now.
And the other was by the Capitol,
I think where the,
maybe the Visitor Center is now.
So, I mean really off the grid,
just not worthy of the significance
of that conflict and that generation.
[Mark] Thank you
[Shannon] All right, this one is related
to sort of the last one that I asked about.
It says, as this time goes by
with fewer World War II veterans,
do you have any plans in conveying veteran experience
when there are no longer any World War II veterans?
How will you do that?
[Holly] Yeah, so we have been since 2011,
we've actually been capturing
World War II veterans interviews.
A lot of them at the World War II Memorial
in those early days
with the honor flights coming in.
But we're continuing to do that,
to try to tell their stories.
We have a great network of World War II veterans
that we work with
and really just getting them preserved,
in perpetuity, by capturing them on camera
even over the phone,
if they're not able to get on camera.
So, any way we can
of capturing those stories,
we're doing, and we're gonna continue to do that
until the last one is with us.
[Shannon] Okay, well, Mark, I think I'm out of questions,
do you see any more?
[Mark] No, I think we've gotten through
all of them for now.
[Shannon] Okay, very good.
All right, well, thank you Holly once again,
this is, oh, I'm sorry, one more came in.
It says, in memory of World War II veterans,
is there a website or place
where their names are all at?
[Holly] So that's an interesting...
I don't know if the question was about
those who passed, the 400,000.
So, I actually spent 14 years
with the Vietnam Veterans Memorial,
and we worked quite closely
with the database of the 58,000 plus
who died in Vietnam.
And I worked with the Department of Defense
Office of Casualties
when I was at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund
really closely.
So when I came here,
I've been here almost nine years at the Friends
and I called my contact in DOD.
I said, okay, go ahead,
send me those 400,000 plus names.
He said, Holly, it doesn't exist,
there's no list.
And that was shocking for me.
I thought, wow, I mean, 70 year at that point,
almost seventy years later,
nobody has compiled the list
of our war dead from World War II,
that was kind of shocking.
The American Battle Monuments Commission
does have about 200,000 of them,
the ones that are buried overseas.
So they have, 'cause of course,
those beautiful cemeteries in Normandy
in Meuse-Argonne, in Sicily,
that have become the homes to our war dead,
they have those.
But the ones who were brought home
and were left and brought to their personal,
hometown cemeteries and things,
there's not a calculation of those.
So, that's something that,
is always sort of at the forefront of my mind.
And how can we make sure
we have that at some point,
because I think that's so important.
But there is a database to go back to.
The American Battle Monuments Commission
actually set up a sort of
publicly driven database at WWiimemorial.com.
So, and they set that up
when they were doing the fundraising
for the World War II Memorial,
it was a fundraising tool,
but it's become an important historic archive.
And it's available
when you go to the World War II Memorial,
you can use, there's a keypad, a computer terminal,
and you can go there
and people can add their loved ones
or themselves if they were World War II veterans,
they can add their names to this database.
Anyone who served in World War II
can be added to this database.
So, I think there are like 2 million entries
in the database.
And you can access it online
or at the World War II Memorial directly,
and people can still add names to it.
[Shannon] That's awesome.
We did get one comment that says,
as a Vietnam vet, thank you for your work.
[Holly] Thank you.
[Shannon] Yep, all right.
Okay, well, thank you, Holly.
If we did not get to your question,
hopefully we got to all of them,
but if we did not,
you can email or you have any additional ones
that you would like to propose.
You can email Holly directly
to the address that's listed here on the screen,
and you can also visit the website
to learn more about the memorial.
Now a video recording of this presentation
will be available on the Sanctuaries' Webinar Archives page.
It's found that that long URL,
that is listed at the top.
Don't worry, we'll send that to you in an email.
In addition, the webinar will be archived
on our Monitor National Marine Sanctuary's website.
You can just click on the multimedia section
in the tool bar to access the webinar box,
and you will also find future webinars
in that same section.
And don't worry, as I said,
all this is gonna be sent to you in a follow-up email
once the recording is ready to view.
We do have some upcoming webinars.
In February the eighth,
we have James Charlet
he's a Historian, Author and Former Site Manager
of the Chicamacomico Life-Saving Station.
He's gonna tell us the stories
about the African-American lifesaving crews
who served in North Carolina.
On March the eighth, Dr. Sal Mercogliano,
he's the Associate Professor
at the History of Campbell University.
He's a Former Merchant Mariner,
and an Adjunct Professor
for the Maritime Industry
Policy at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy.
He's gonna talk about World War I
and the German U-boat force
off the North Carolina coast.
And then April 12th will be a big one for us
our own Tane Casserly, and Chris Taylor
and Avery Paxton, all of NOAA
and Chris Southerly from the North Carolina,
Office of State Archaeology
are gonna be giving an overview
of our upcoming expedition called
Valor in the Atlantic
which will be happening in May.
You're gonna be able to attend this webinar,
you're gonna learn more about it
and learn about
the Global Foundation of Ocean Exploration
will be serving and documenting
the North Carolina shipwrecks,
and you can learn how to watch it live,
which is gonna be pretty cool.
And of course, we always invite you
to join us on social media.
And lastly, as you exit the webinar,
there is a short survey
for formal and informal educators.
If you are an educator,
NOAA would really appreciate it,
if you would take a minute or two,
to complete the survey.
Your answers will help NOAA
develop future webinars to meet your needs
and your participation is voluntary
and your answers will be
held completely anonymous.
Once again, we want to thank you Holly,
for a great presentation
and thank you all for joining us
and taking the time out of your day today to be with us,
have a wonderful day.
And this concludes the presentation for all, thank you.