In this essay for The Washington Post, co-written with Army veteran and Gold Star wife Jennifer Ballou, Elliot Ackerman describes the planned Global War on Terrorism Memorial on the National Mall and argues that reconciling with the war's costs is a responsibility all Americans share, not veterans alone.
"I Can't Imagine What You Went Through"
Ackerman and Ballou push back on the well-meaning idea that veterans' wartime experiences are unimaginable, arguing that treating veterans as unknowable only widens the distance between them and the society they served.
A Memorial on Sacred Ground
The authors describe the memorial's planned site just north of the Lincoln Memorial, within the National Mall's Reserve alongside the Vietnam, Korean, and World War II memorials, and the public design process now underway as co-chairs of the project's Design Advisory Council.
What the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Proved
Citing the Vietnam Veterans Memorial's dedication, which drew 150,000 veterans and families and remains one of the National Mall's most visited sites, Ackerman and Ballou argue that a memorial built while a war is still fresh in the public mind can genuinely help reunite veterans with the country they served.
Read the Original Article
This essay originally appeared in The Washington Post.