November 4, 2009
UW to dedicate new Medal of Honor memorial on Veterans Day
WHAT: Dedication of the Medal of Honor memorial at the University of Washington. The monument is the result of efforts led by students.
WHEN: Wednesday, Nov. 11
Parade begins at 10 a.m., dedication ceremony at 10:30 a.m. General Peter Chiarelli, Army vice chief of staff and a UW graduate, will deliver the main address.
WHERE:
The Medal of Honor memorial is at the flagpole end of UW’s Memorial Way.
Car parking: Use the underground parking garage accessible from either 15th Avenue Northeast or Gate 1 south of it. Alternatively, enter campus at Northeast 45th Street (Gate 2), then park in the N-1 lot south of the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture or in the N-5 lot east of Memorial Way and the Jacobsen Observatory.
News trucks: Enter at 15th Avenue Northeast (Gate 1). Immediately turn north and park west of Odegaard Library. http://www.washington.edu/maps/ Trucks should be in place by 9, as access to the monument site will be limited as the parade assembles. Media space has been reserved immediately north of the monument.
Memorial Way honors UW faculty and students lost in World War I. The flagpole honors faculty, staff, students and alumni the university lost in World War II.
DETAILS:
The Medal of Honor Memorial, the result of a student-led drive, is one of the very few such memorials on a college campus; others are on the campuses of the service academies. The memorial is also more than a plaque on a wall: it’s a rock sculpture, 34 feet in diameter, near the heart of the UW campus. Designed by two Seattle sculptors and a landscape architect, the monument recognizes all 3,448 medal recipients but specifically the eight UW alumni who hold the award. The UW has more Medal of Honor recipients among its alumni than any other public university in the country except the service academies. The Medal of Honor is the nation’s highest award for military valor and is usually presented by the president of the United States. Sixteen recipients of the medal, including one of the two living UW alumni, will be present for the dedication.
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For more information, contact Catherine O’Donnell at 206-543-2580 or cath2@uw.edu.
For more material about the UW memorial, visit http://depts.washington.edu/memorial; for more about the Medal of Honor, visit http://www.cmohs.org.
