WASHINGTON, D.C. — Gulf War veterans finally have a place of their own on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. The Desert Shield and Desert Storm Memorial was dedicated Saturday on the corner lot at 23rd Street and Constitution Avenue NW, with the Lincoln and Vietnam memorials as close neighbors.
The Interior Department and the National Park Service have added the site to the National Park System. It honors the Americans who served in the two operations and remembers those who died.
The ceremony started at 11 a.m. and featured remarks from Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, capping more than four years of construction. The monument uses materials meant to reflect the desert environment and battle conditions troops faced in the Gulf, and it tells visitors about the 34-country coalition that fought to defend Kuwait.
The memorial marks the American response after Iraq invaded Kuwait in August 1990. Desert Shield started that same month, the coalition launched Desert Storm in January 1991, and a ceasefire followed in February 1991 once Kuwait was freed.
Getting it built took more than a decade. Congress authorized the memorial in a 2014 law, a 2017 law approved its spot near the Mall, and the memorial association won approval for the design in 2018.
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