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VOICE ONE:
Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. I'm Barbara Klein.
VOICE TWO:
And I'm Steve Ember. The last Monday in May is a national holiday. Memorial
Day honors those who died in military service.
VOICE ONE:
But any time of year, visitors to the nation's capital can see a number of
memorials that honor members of the armed forces.
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VOICE TWO:
Part of the tradition of an American military funeral is the playing of a
bugle call known as taps. Taps is also played at military burial grounds during
Memorial Day ceremonies.
Another traditional honor in many communities is a Memorial Day parade. And
new for two thousand six was a ceremony held a week earlier on the grounds of
the Washington Monument. The event, called "A Time of Remembrance," was
described as the first of its kind.
Organizers invited family members who lost relatives in every conflict since
the Revolutionary War. Children of service members killed in Iraq and
Afghanistan received special gold medals.
Memorial Day honors all of those who have died in America's wars. But the
holiday began as a way to remember soldiers killed in the Civil War. On May
thirtieth, eighteen sixty-eight, flowers were placed on the graves of Union and
Confederate soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery.
VOICE ONE:
Today, more than two hundred sixty thousand people are buried there. Lines of
simple white headstones mark the graves. The eighty-hectare cemetery also serves
as a burial place for people of national and historical importance.
The cemetery is in Arlington, Virginia, across the Potomac River from
Washington. Next to the burial ground is the Defense Department headquarters at
the Pentagon.
VOICE TWO:
A funeral with full military honors traditionally includes a caisson to
transport the body. A caisson is a wagon pulled by horses. At Arlington, six
black or gray horses pull caissons made in nineteen eighteen. A seventh horse
carries the leader of the procession.
Sometimes a horse without a rider also takes part in a funeral. The best
known riderless horse was Black Jack. He took part in the funerals of presidents
Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson. The horse was named after a famous general known as
“Black Jack?Pershing.
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VOICE ONE:
Each year about one and one-half million people visit the Vietnam Veterans
Memorial. It is one of the most-visited places in Washington.
The Vietnam Veterans Memorial was the idea of a former soldier named Jan
Scruggs. He fought in the Vietnam War. The war ended in nineteen seventy-five.
Many soldiers came home only to face the anger of Americans who opposed the war.
Jan Scruggs organized an effort to remember those who never returned.
In nineteen eighty, a group of former soldiers announced a competition to
design a memorial. The winner, Maya Lin, was twenty-one years old. She was
studying architecture at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. Maya Lin
designed a memorial formed by two walls of black stone.
VOICE TWO:
The Vietnam Veterans Memorial opened in nineteen eighty-two.
The walls are about seventy-six meters long. They are set into the earth.
They meet to form a wide V. The names of more than fifty-eight thousand
Americans killed or declared missing-in-action are cut into the stone.
Nearby is a statue of three soldiers. They are looking in the direction of
the names. Another statue honors the service of women in the war.
Almost any time of day, you can see people looking for the name of a family
member or friend who died in the war. Once they find the name, many rub a pencil
on paper over the letters to copy it.
Many people leave remembrances at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. One day, as
crowds passed by, two young men left notes. A woman in her late seventies or
eighties left a handful of red roses.
VOICE ONE:
After the success of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Congress approved a
memorial to Korean War veterans. The Korean War Veterans Memorial opened in July
of nineteen ninety-five. It is near the Vietnam memorial.
The Korean War lasted from nineteen fifty to nineteen fifty-three. The
memorial honors those who died. It also honors those who survived.
The Korean War has been called the last foot soldier's war. The memorial
includes a group of nineteen statues of soldiers. The soldiers appear to be
walking up a hill, toward an American flag.
Artist Frank Gaylord made the statues from steel. Each is more than two
meters tall. People who drive along a road near the memorial sometimes think the
statues are real soldiers.
VOICE TWO:
On one side of the Korean War Veterans Memorial is a stone walkway. It lists
the names of the twenty-two countries that sent troops to Korea under United
Nations command. On the other side is a shiny stone wall. Sandblasted into the
wall are images from photographs of more than two thousand five hundred support
troops.
A Pool of Remembrance shows the numbers of American and United Nations forces
killed, wounded, captured or missing. The total is more than two million. Cut
into the wall above the pool is a message: "Freedom is Not Free."
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VOICE ONE:
One of the lesser known memorials on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.,
is often called "the temple." The round stone structure honors people from the
District of Columbia who died in World War One.
The war was fought from nineteen fourteen to nineteen eighteen. The memorial
was completed in nineteen thirty-one. It is the only District of Columbia
memorial on the National Mall.
VOICE TWO:
In nineteen eighty-six, President Ronald Reagan signed legislation to honor
women in the military. The Women in Military Service for America Memorial opened
in nineteen ninety-seven.
The memorial is near the entrance to Arlington National Cemetery. It
recognizes the service of all the women who have taken part in the nation's
wars. About two million women have served or currently serve in the armed
forces.
Michael Manfredi and Marion Gail Weiss designed a place of glass, water and
light. The memorial has a large wall shaped in a half-circle. In front, two
hundred jets of water meet in a pool.
Inside the memorial, the stories of women in wartime are cut into glass
panels. Computer records contain the names, pictures, service records and
personal statements of about two hundred fifty thousand military women.
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VOICE ONE:
The World War Two Memorial is the newest of the major memorials in
Washington. It rises between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument on
the National Mall. America entered the war after Japan bombed the Navy base at
Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December seventh, ninety forty-one.
Sixteen million men and women served in the American military between
nineteen forty-one and nineteen forty-five. More than four hundred thousand
died.
VOICE TWO:
The World War Two Memorial stands in the open air. It is built of bronze and
granite. In the center, at ground level, is a round pool of water. Except in
very cold weather, water shoots from a circle of fountains in the middle.
When the sun is just right, rainbows of color dance in the air. Fifty-six
stone pillars rise around the pool. These represent each of the American states
and territories, plus the District of Columbia, at the time of the war. On two
tall arches appear the names of where the fighting took place. One says
Atlantic; the other says Pacific.
Many visitors to the memorial served during the war. One visitor, a former
Navy man, once said: "The only good thing about my fighting in the war was that
I was too young to be terrified."
VOICE ONE:
A federal law passed in two thousand calls on Americans to stop for one
minute at three o'clock local time on Memorial Day. The National Moment of
Remembrance honors the members of the armed forces and others who have died in
service to America.
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VOICE TWO:
Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. I'm
Steve Ember.
VOICE ONE:
And I'm Barbara Klein. Read and listen to our programs at
voaspecialenglish.com. And join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA
Special English.
