Every day on Veterans Day I think of the New Jersey World War II Memorial — across the street from New Jersey’s capitol building in Trenton — and remember the service of a passing generation as well as my much humbler efforts regarding the war.
Although I was born several years after the end of World War II, I just may be one of the last individuals “drafted” into action for that war effort — or, more accurately, to commemorate the efforts of those men and women who served in that war.
It started on a late spring day in 2008. I was in an office on West State Street and working part-time for the New Jersey State Council on the Arts public arts program. Suddenly the program’s coordinator, Tom Moran (now chief curator for Grounds For Sculpture), appeared and announced, “Stop whatever you’re working on. The governor has announced that he wants the New Jersey World War II Memorial complete for Veterans Day, and you are going to help write it.”
My reply was a nod of my head and the utterance, “Cool.”
The memorial was a project of the New Jersey Department of Military and Veterans Affairs, and Jack McGreevey, father of a former governor, was the chair. While the design had been approved and some work completed, the construction was far behind schedule. Although that’s status quo for state projects (and I’ve been involved with several to know), the sad reality was that the veterans who served in the war were aging and frankly did not have the time to wait for this memorial to be completed.
For a variety of reasons, former Marine and then current governor Jon Corzine decided that it was time to get the memorial built, and he put his well stocked checkbook behind his order to make it happen.
Work needed to be done, and that included writing the text. Since I had worked as a newspaper writer as well as an exhibition text writer for the Franklin Institute and the Philadelphia Zoo, it made sense to draft me for the effort. The current project that I was working on would just have to wait.
True to the spirit of Moran’s announcement that day, all attention went to the governor’s decree, and I sharpened my pencils, got a pad, and started working out an offensive.
The memorial committee had decided that there would be time lines for both the Atlantic and Pacific war theaters, written in the shortest amount of words possible. So we set about asking the veterans for input, researching, writing, editing, reviewing, and participating in lively meetings.
As summer arrived and others were heading to the beach or going on vacation, I was busy studying the Battle of Stalingrad, the Red Ball Express, Eisenhower’s decision to launch the offensive on Normandy, the Death March of Bataan, the liberation of Paris and Rome, and more.
There was also another need: a time line of the war effort in the Garden State.
While there was a lot of information regarding the war in general, the history of our state at war would demand a lot more research and detective work. I soon found a fascinating world of fading memories of New Jersey at war fact. Thousands of German and Italian prisoners of were sent to war camps in our state. Fort Monmouth was the nation’s center for carrier pigeons.
New Jersey pilots created the country’s first Civil Air Patrol in New Jersey and harassed and frightened German U-boats. A young candy company in Newark received a K-ration contract and provided GIs with a then unknown product, M&Ms. The Picatinny Arsenal in Sussex County emerged as one of the nation’s major ammunition makers, employing more than 18,000 employees working around the clock. A member of the famed Newark Calvary became the first American in liberated Paris. And a German submarine’s surrender to the U.S. Navy off the coast of Cape May made it one of the last surrenders of the European war.
Yet perhaps one of the most memorable moments in the state’s World War II memories may have come 63 years after the end of the war, when the memorial was dedicated on Veterans Day 2008 and nearly 2,000 World War II veterans who had been waiting years for the moment gathered on West State Street.
It was in that sea that I found myself listing to these men and women who had once faced an uncertain world and future. It was then that I realized that I was part of something bigger than I had anticipated or could ever dream. To see this body of seasoned men and women look at the memorial and hear their sighs and voices say, “It’s all here. It tells our story. It’s all here,” was startling.
It was also one of the most gratifying moments that I have ever had as a writer, and I was grateful to serve.
The New Jersey World War II memorial is part of the State Capitol Complex and open every day. Free street parking is available on weekends and holidays. For directions go to www.njleg.state.nj.us/legislativepub/Visit_Complex_Guide.pdf.
