Korean War Memorial

For some reason I found this more moving than the other memorials. Sure the Vietnam Wall is very impressive with so many names as are the endless headstones at Arlington Cemetery. But somehow the Korean Memorial had the best of everything. There were statues of soldiers and a wall with etchings of onlooking soldiers, a contemplative fountain of water enclosed with facts of how many dead/wounded/etc, along with blossoming cherry trees nearby. It all culminated into a nice experience, not to mention the day I visited had many veterans and sons/daughters of veterans paying respects.

amazing. i would tell anyone it’s a must-see.

i felt like i was in the soldier’s shoes.

This needs to be visited in the evening, and if it is raining even better!!!

Going to college in DC, my friends and I used to take weekend monument walks. One day when we came to the Korean War Memorial, I mentioned that I thought the shrubbery in between the statues were supposed to represent rice paddies. I think that when I visited DC as a kid my parents told me thats what they were to shut me up (or because kids believe almost anything, as I’ve learned while teaching).
My friends laughed at me, but I still don’t think rice paddies would be that much of a stretch.

The statues of the soldiers made me feel very somber. The images in the wall nearly brought tears to my eyes.

Go at dusk. The shadows are unbelievable.

I spent (only) 3 days in Washington, D.C. so we had limited time at each site. Of all the memorials we visited, this one surprised me the most. I knew nothing about it prior to visiting it, and it really made me think about this war and this time in our country. While in college I wrote about monuments, and the symbolism in them, and why people choose to memorialize events. I studied this one in depth, and I really want to go back so I can appreciate it even more than I did the first time.

I found the statues creepy, and the statistics to just be numbers, but the wall was so touching. I love the etchings, although I didn’t like the fact they didn’t include much of the Korean culture on the wall.

To see the life size troops walking across the “field”.... I found it struck a cord. The expressions on the faces of the soldiers really tell a tale! See this if you can. So powerful!

I went at night and during the day. At night when it was dark and cold and snowy I got the feeling that I was walking with the soldiers, and kept looking over my shoulder.