Phoenix
Rich Pawelko - Arizona’s World War II Memorial:
Guns to Salute the Fallen
1700 W Washington St, Phoenix (Wesley Bolin Memorial Plaza)
The Arizona World War II Memorial: Guns to Salute the Fallen has become a focal point of the many memorials installed at Wesley Bolin Memorial Plaza. This moving piece, designed by architect Rich Pawelko, incorporates the mast and anchor of the USS Arizona with gun barrels from the USS Arizona and the USS Missouri. The USS Arizona was sunk at Pearl Harbor in 1941, which brought the United States into World War II. The USS Missouri is the ship where the Japanese signed the Instrument of Surrender that ended World War II. Bringing these two ships into the memorial provides bookends for the timeline of World War II. The barrels are placed 405 inches apart, with each inch representing 1,000 American lives lost during World War II. In the center of the memorial are blue steel beams designed to look like the hull of a ship. There are nine beams, representing the nine minutes it took the USS Arizona to sink at Pearl Harbor during the attack. The beams also include the names of all the 1,092 Arizonans who gave their lives for the United States during the war.
Pawelko has made a tasteful, well thought-out reminder of our past. The Memorial is located at the far east side of the plaza, right where Washington St and Centennial Way separate. Wesley Bolin Memorial Plaza contains over forty monuments and memorials, and is a great place to learn some of the history of our great state of Arizona.
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