Located just to the east of The Three Soldiers memorial is the Vietnam Women's Memorial which honors the 265,000 women of the U.S. Armed Forces who took part in the war.
Sculpted by internationally-known, New Mexico native Glenna Goodacre and dedicated on November 11, 1993 (Veteran's Day), the memorial depicts three women coming to the aid of a fallen soldier.
While one nurse comforts the soldier, another kneels in thought or prayer. The third looks to the skies: for help from a med-i-vac helicopter or perhaps from a higher power.
The women's memorial became reality due to a 10-year fight by Vietnam army nurse Diane Carlson Evan, who led the fight to add the Vietnam Women's Memorial to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Although The Three Soldiers memorial was meant to give human faces to the names on the memorial wall, Evans felt the omission of a memorial showing women would negate the important role that women played in the war.
However it took three federal commissions and two separate pieces of Congressional legislation to get the memorial approved, a total of 10 years for the memorial to become the first one honoring women's military service.
The memorial is free and open 24 hours a day. Park Rangers are on duty daily from 8 a.m. to midnight. Storytellers are featured every 15 to 30 minutes near the site of the memorial from 8:30 a.m. to 4:45 p.m.
All photos in this blog post were taken by my husband and me during our visit in September, 2013.
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