World War II Vets Too Dead To See Unbuilt Memorial

Back in 2000, people in New Jersey decided there really should be a World War II memorial in the state. The reasoning: If there’s any war we don’t really honor the soldiers from, it’s World War II.

Now it’s 2007, and it still hasn’t been built. This is worrying quite a few people because there’s a chance by the time it’s finished there won’t be any more WW II veterans alive to see the memorial.

The Garden State’s been on a bit of a memorial binge recently, with a Vietnam one opening up in 1995 and a Korea one opening in 2001. While the funding for those projects went smoothly — possibly because there are veterans of those wars not in nursing homes — people just don’t feel the need to honor the greatest generation or whatever. (Fun fact: 1,100 World War II veterans die every day in America. Wait, I guess that’s not fun.)

The state has kicked in $3 million for the memorial, but it’s now going to cost about 80 billion dollars to build and they could really use some money. And whose fault is it that the memorial isn’t done? That’s right.

While the state has allocated $3 million for the project, the commission in charge of the memorial has received only about $200,000 in donations from individuals and organizations, and not one cent from any New Jersey corporation, he said. The latter especially angers [Stephen] Abel, who said many of those corporations made windfall profits from wartime profits.

“It’s been a significant disappointment,” he said.

How dare those corporations make wartime profits and then not remember it like 60 years later. Come on, Standard Oil of New Jersey!

Few, if any, WWII vets to see N.J. memorial [Press of Atlantic City]