A House Resources subcommittee voted Tuesday to give the Air Force Memorial Foundation five more years to build a memorial in the Washington area.
The bill (H.R. 4583), which the Subcommittee on National Parks and Public Lands approved by voice vote, amends the 1993 law (P.L. 103-163) authorizing an Air Force memorial to extend its expiration date to Dec. 2, 2005.
During the brief markup session, the bill's sponsor, Subcommittee Chairman James V. Hansen, R-Utah, observed that the measure was "noncontroversial." Indeed, it generated no discussion or debate.
The same could not be said about the memorial itself.
The memorial, a tribute to past, current and future Air Force personnel as well aerospace veterans of the Signal Corps, Air Service, Air Corps and Army Air Forces, has been planned for a site near Arlington National Cemetery, across the Potomac River from Washington. But its proximity to the Iwo Jima Memorial, the venerable symbol of the U.S. Marine Corps some 600 yards away, and its placement on a lower elevation along Arlington Ridge has generated protests from within the Air Force community.
At an annual Air Force Memorial Foundation dinner in March, Air Force Chief of Staff Michael Ryan defended the site by saying that the planned memorial "is a fitting tribute to the sacrifices made by airmen throughout history. It is also fitting this particular memorial be erected close to Arlington National Cemetery and to Ft. Myer, [Va.] the location of the first military flight, and close to the resting place of the first military aviation casualty."
The memorial is an abstract sculpture based on the Air Force star and designed to evoke the idea of air and space to embrace and include all air personnel, according to Chuck Link, Air Force Memorial Foundation president. The foundation has raised at least $20 million, two-thirds of the project's estimated $30 million cost. Groundbreaking is tentatively set for December, with completion expected in 2002.