A Long Time Coming
In 1987, at a fish fry near Toledo, Ohio, a World War II veteran named Roger Durbin asked Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio) a question about a memorial dedicated to those who served in the war. The question: Why wasn't there one?Seventeen years later, on May 29, 2004, the answer will be formally unveiled on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., with the dedication of the National World War II Memorial."A fish fry, that's where it started," Maj. Gen. (Ret.) John Herrling said.Herrling, who was appointed secretary of the American Battle Monuments Commission by President Bill Clinton in 1995, has overseen the long effort to build the memorial."Marcy Kaptur went back and drew up legislation for a World War II memorial, but it took her six years to get it passed," Herrling said.Upon taking the job, Herrling saw two clearly defined tasks: Building the monument and raising the money to do so."I put together a fundraising team and that team raised more than $190 million,'' he said. "I don't think a federal agency has ever been asked to raise that kind of money before. I didn't know from time to time if we'd finish the design first or the fundraising. As it turned out, we raised the money before final approval was given for the design.''Herrling asked Sen. Robert Dole (R-Kansas) to serve as fundraising chairman. Dole, a World War II veteran, agreed, but only after exacting a promise of a co-chair
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