A monument 'long overdue'

For 15 years, a group has been working to get a monument erected near the nation’s capital to honor the mothers of those killed while serving their country. Now, the group’s leader is optimistic the light is starting to show up at the end of the tunnel.

Judith Young, chairman of the Gold Star Mothers National Monument Foundation, told American Legion National Convention delegates that the ground hopefully will be broken for the Gold Star Mothers Family Monument at Arlington National Cemetery.

“I’m kind of hoping that by next year, if we have the ground-breaking, that we can move a little bit faster toward this,” said Young, whose son Jeffrey was killed in the 1983 bombing at a U.S. Marines barracks in Beirut. “But we want to be able to recognize mom and her family, as to their loss, what they have given, what they have shared. And we know that the veterans we have spoken to, they all have someone that they know that they lost.

“Somebody had to do it. It’s long overdue. And the Gold Star Mothers National Monument Foundation is the backbone behind this.”

According to the foundation, the monument “will honor all mothers and families, whether members of an organization or not, who know the grief of losing a loved one, and will promote a bond of kinship among those who memorialize our nation’s defenders.”

The initial architectural concept involves a statue of a mother receiving a telegram with news of her child’s death that faces the Arlington graves, as well as panels with bronze reliefs describing the Gold Star’s history and honoring the family.

The monument is supported by a May 2017 American Legion resolution, in which the Legion goes on record in support “of the construction of a national monument dedicated to Gold Star mothers and families in our nation’s capital.”

Young said the design and placement of the monument have been well thought out. “We want to be independent from the other commemorative works,” she said. “We don’t want to have to be interfering with them. We have a height limit. We certainly don’t want it to overshadow anything. We’re going to avoid any light pollution. There will be a path leading in, and there will be a path leading out.”