Ohio VIII

While visiting Cleveland on a business trip, I had the opportunity to see the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and other sights. One of them was this great War Memorial. It honors all who have perished during 20th Century wars. Those lost in Vietnam are, of course, honored here.

The memorial was originally built to honor WWII soldiers but in 1991 was refurbished and expanded to include all from the 20th century.

 

Our other conflicts post Vietnam are recalled here, too. As always seems to be the case and not particularly prophetic, empty spaces are provided for the future sacrifices of those possibly not yet born.

The statue is of a man escaping the flames of war and reaching for everlasting peace. There are fountains surrounding the statue, but they were not on the day I was there which provided this clear view.

Interestingly, the statue/fountain is known by three different names: The Fountain of Eternal Life, The War Memorial Fountain and Peace Emerging from the Flames of War.The large globe on which he is standing represents the earth. The whole statue is 35 feet tall.

Next time, we will visit Pennsylvania . So join me at 9:00am on the 14th of February.

To see other posts from Ohio, or any other state, click the state name on the left of this page.

Tennessee

Leaving Kentucky, I drove south into Tennessee. The state memorial is located at the War Memorial Plaza in Nashville. I tracked the site down and took a few pics, but it was raining and I was not very happy with the photos. I decided to come back at night and try some illuminated shots. I returned around midnight, the rain had stopped, but it was bitter cold. I heard on the radio that it was one of the coldest nights ever in Nashville. As a result an organization was there passing out food and drink to the city's homeless population. The place was very busy. It was not a good time to take pictures and seemed somewhat inappropriate to do so. I left the city the next day as the weather was bad, once again.

About a week later, after going through other parts of Tennessee and Alabama, I returned and found a good, if cold, day and was able to get some shots.

The War Memorial Plaza is a rather small area and I found it very difficult to photograph the statue and the Wall together. I had seen pictures previously of the statue and the Wall separately and now I understand why this is necessary. The only way I could find to get the whole picture was from an elevated area outside the plaza and as you can see that presented the problem of the tree in plaza blocking the statue.

The War Memorial Plaza is located on Union Street at 7th at the Legislative Plaza. You can find parking in the area and the site contains other war memorials, as well. Within the Plaza is the Vietnam Veteran's Park which specifically honors the 1292 from Tennessee who made the final sacrifice.