We Will Never Forget
Last month I had an opportunity to visit the Pentagon Memorial. During my trip to DC, my family and I had created an itinerary of sorts of places that we wanted to see and experience. One of the places that my cousin suggested was the Pentagon Memorial, but prior to this trip I didn’t know much about the memorial. As a matter of fact, I didn’t even realize there was a memorial (not sure how that happened though). Anyway, as the days went on we would pass the Pentagon on our way to DC or some other surrounding suburb and we never stopped. It was always a fleeting suggestion as we passed.
Finally, the day before we left DC, and after an exhausting day trekking around the National Mall, we decided at the last-minute to visit this memorial.
I’m so happy that we made it. This was a wonderful memorial. Beautiful benches coming out of the ground at random places, with names engraved at the end of them, facing either of two directions, pools of water underneath, and some with names written on plaques under the water and some without.
With all the randomness and wonder as to what it all meant, I researched it online and found the answers. It was amazing, the thought and work that went in designing and creating this memorial.
With a better understanding of the symbolism of the benches, names, directions, and timelines, I went back that evening to take more photos. This time, walking around the memorial, I felt as though I had a better connection to these victims and what they went through on that horrible day.
If you notice in the background, three metal beams that seem to be shooting out of the ground, that is the Air Force Memorial just a few yards away from the Pentagon and the Pentagon Memorial.
LCDR Charles A. Droz III, USN, Retired
The following text was taken from the Pentagon Memorial Fund website:
Charles A. Droz, known by many as “Chuck,” had over twenty years experience developing products and technology for distributed computing environments. Prior to joining EMSolutions, he spent 20 years in the Navy where he pursued development of high capacity signal processors, multi-processor application software, and innovative signal processing algorithms. Mr. Droz engaged in system engineering consulting; development of geographically distributed, web-based systems; and development of an ARPA project demonstrating rapid object-oriented application development through frameworks, components and application templates.
Mr. Droz received a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering from Grove City College, and a Masters of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from the Naval Postgraduate School.
Always in our hearts, your loving wife, Cindy; daughter, Shannon; mother, Suzanne; and all your family and friends.
More Information
Find out more information about the layout of this memorial from another post that I wrote about the Pentagon Memorial.
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