Haley Stevens: “in the early part of the Eisenhower years, I joined that administration and later came to Washington and then met a…”

“in the early part of the Eisenhower years, I joined that administration and later came to Washington and then met a whole series of World War II veterans. We talked and dreamed then of a memorial to a war in which we had just been. Fourteen years ago, the World War II memorial was conceived and the process started, to have it built here in Washington, DC. Eight years ago, the Congress authorized this memorial; 6 years ago the first of 22 public hearings on the site and design of the memorial commenced. Construction was scheduled to start last month, but the memorial is now bogged down in legal and procedural issues. Of the 16 million men and women who served in World War II, only 5 million are alive today. We are now losing veterans of the greatest generation at the rate of 1,100 veterans a day. I questioned that, but we checked it; 1,100 veterans of World War II are passing away each day. By the year 2004, there will be less than 4 million of us. In my home State of Alaska, in the last 10 years, we lost one-third of the veterans whom I had known and worked with so long.”