Memorial Daze

LAST fall, with a threatened government shutdown hours away, congressional leaders and senior White House officials huddled to negotiate the crucial final details of more than $400 billion in spending. But negotiators put aside disagreements over major issues like abortion and labor regulations to handle a dispute just as hot: the duel between the Air Force and the Marine Corps over the site of a memorial.

In 1993, Congress approved a request from the Air Force to build a monument, with private funds, on an unspecified site. The Air Force Memorial Foundation began a fundraising drive led by Joe Coors Jr. and boosted by defense contractors. After reviewing proposed locations around Washington, the foundation settled on a lovely spot, a quiet 25-acre hillside near Arlington Cemetery in Virginia that enjoys a commanding view of the capital’s monuments across the Potomac River. Since 1954, this same hillside, known as Arlington Ridge, has also been home to the Iwo Jima Memorial.

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Kate O'Beirne

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LAST fall, with a threatened government shutdown hours away, congressional leaders and senior White House officials huddled to negotiate the crucial final details of more than $400 billion in spending. But negotiators put aside disagreements over major issues like abortion and labor regulations to handle a dispute just as hot: the duel between the Air Force and the Marine Corps over the site of a memorial.

In 1993, Congress approved a request from the Air Force to build a monument, with private funds, on an unspecified site. The Air Force Memorial Foundation began a fundraising drive led by Joe Coors Jr. and boosted by defense contractors. After reviewing proposed locations around Washington, the foundation settled on a lovely spot, a quiet 25-acre hillside near Arlington Cemetery in Virginia that enjoys a commanding view of the capital’s monuments across the Potomac River. Since 1954, this same hillside, known as Arlington Ridge, has also been home to the Iwo Jima Memorial.