WWII memorial opens quietly

World War II veteran Bob Tull and his wife, Dottie, arrived yesterday at the National World War II Memorial not sure whether they would like it.

The Falls Church couple had been skeptical of the memorial’s location in the center of the Mall, thinking it would clog up the open space between the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial.

However, at 9:32 a.m. — two minutes after the $175 million memorial opened to the public — the couple walked around the northeast corner of the memorial and saw the plaza surrounded by 56 granite pillars and the Rainbow Pool with its fountains sparkling in the sun.

Their doubts disappeared.

“It’s beautiful,” Mrs. Tull, 76, said.

Mr. Tull, 78, who served on the USS Roosevelt from 1944 to 1945, stood silently. After taking in the sight, the District native said, “This thing should have been built several years ago. It’s good they finally decided to do it.”

The memorial was swarming with visitors as soon as it opened.

There were some veterans, but most of the visitors were out-of-town schoolchildren whose chaperones or teachers made last-minute changes to their schedules when they learned that the memorial was opening early.

Kevin LeClair and Sam Karl, both 14, were glad their eighth-grade class from L.B. Clark Middle School in Two Rivers, Wis., could see the memorial.

“You think, ’Yeah, it’s a war,’ but once you come, you see it, you read all the plaques, it makes you think about how many people died andhow serious it was,” Kevin said.

“They died for you and made ourcountry free,” Sam said.

The American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC) planned to open the memorial sometime during the last week of the month, but did not decide until mid-afternoon Wednesday to open it yesterday.

As workers put finishing touches on portions of the memorial, young students lounged beside the pool, took pictures, and played Hacky Sack in the plaza. One group of schoolgirls stood in the southern arch and sang the national anthem. Other visitors cheered when the girls finished singing.

Most of the veterans will be here Memorial Day weekend, when the Smithsonian will host a four-day Reunion Celebration on the Mall between Third and Seventh streets NW. About 800,000 people are expected to attend.

Nearly 150,000 people are expected to attend the memorial’s official dedication May 29, and 65 percent of those attendees will either be war veterans or persons who served on the homefront, said Betsy Glick with ABMC.

Tickets for the dedication ceremony were claimed months ago, but Mrs. Glick said some on the waiting list will be able to attend because some ticket holders have canceled.

Veterans who don’t want to wait for the dedication will now be able to see the 7.4 acre-site, two-thirds of which is grass, trees and water.

About 1,065 World War II veterans die each day, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs. Organizers of the celebration have said of the more than 16 million Americans who served in World War II, less than 4 million are alive.

“This is a really fitting thing for the greatest generation. This is beautiful. I just wish it had come earlier,” said Mike Duggan, 67, who served as an Army adviser to South Vietnamese Rangers during the Vietnam War from 1966 to 1967.

“When you consider what they did in four years, they basically took on the world,” said Mr. Duggan, who also served as a major in the 4th Infantry Division from 1968 to 1969. “It’s just amazing. We’ll probably never see anything like it again.”

Maryanne Dziki, 56, took off her sunglasses so she could wipe away tears as she walked through the crowds in the plaza with her husband Dennis, 58. Mrs. Dziki’s father fought in the Battle of Guadalcanal, and her mother was an Army nurse outside London during the war.

Mr. Dziki’s father was wounded at the Battle of Leyte, and was awarded a Purple Heart in 1995. Mr. Dziki’s uncle was 17 when he was killed in Bougainville, a large island east of Papua New Guinea, while coming off a landing craft.

“They would have liked to have seen this,” said Mrs. Dziki, adding she felt “a lot of pride in what they did.”

“I think growing up I never understood the mark they made,” she said. “This monument is that mark. It’s left for us to touch and feel and see.”