Irvine's Perpetual War Memorial Ready

by Major Variola (ret) Saturday, Oct. 02, 2010 at 12:17 PM

City of Irvine's war memorial will be ready 14 Nov. It has names of the dead from Iraq and Afpak wars, and three extra blank panels for future dead soldiers.


The city of Irvine has spent $100K on the US's first and only war memorial to ongoing wars. It lists the names of the dead soldiers, like the vietnam memorial. But these wars never end, so there's blank spaces left for them. It will be updated yearly.

Seriously.

Over half the spaces are filled already.

It'll be dedicated 14 Nov 2010.

From their website, explaining (unabashedly!) how the memorial includes spots for future dead:

By the time of the Memorial's dedication ceremony, roughly 17 granite panels will be filled with names of the dead soldiers. Each 6 foot tall panel has 84 lines and holds an average of 350 names. Three blank panels will be hung at the Memorial and additional names will be processed in the same fashion except that the sandblasting will be done with a portable device on site at the Memorial. A reserve fund is being accumulated to pay for the future engraving, and to pay for an expansion of the Memorial if circumstances warrant it.

http://northwoodmemorial.com/PermanentMemorial/tabid/58/Default.aspx