Honoring the service members who served in the Korean War from 1950-1953, this memorial opened in 1995. The stainless steel soldiers represent different branches of service including Army, Marines, Navy, and Air Force. Faces on the black stone wall are those of real war veterans. Walking through the memorial, one gets the sense of walking with the soldiers, an evocative experience unique among the war memorials in DC.
The Pool of Remembrance is a place for quiet<br />reflection at the Korean War Veterans Memorial. Surrounded by a grove of linden trees, the pool is one of two major elements of the memorial, the first being the triangular Field of Service.
These stainless steel statues sculpted by Frank Gaylord represent several branches of service: Army, Marines, Navy, and Air Force. Look for two Marines carrying a machine gun and mount, the Air Force forward air observer with a fur hat, and the Navy corpsman who is not carrying a weapon. Other soldiers represent different roles in a combat patrol, from rifleman and heavy rifleman to squad leader, radioman, and forward artillery observer.
The United Nations wall is the granite curb on the north side of the statues. This wall lists the 22 countries that gave combat or medical support to the UN forces.
The images on this wall are of real Korean War veterans, taken from photographs. They are clustered into occupational groups. From a distance the arrangement of figures forms a backdrop that looks like distant mountains behind the marching soldiers' statues.
