Sen. Pat Roberts: Memorial lasting tribute to Ike

Just down Independence Avenue from the U.S. Capitol building, construction will begin Thursday on the National Mall to build a memorial for Gen. Dwight David Eisenhower, the nation’s 34th president.

It will feature his youth in Kansas, his military service and his presidency.

It will celebrate his accomplishments in a peaceful park setting. Sculptures will show his posture among GIs, among the world’s civilian leaders and as a young man in Abilene. A soaring and shimmering stainless steel tapestry depicting the peaceful D-Day beaches of Normandy, the defining moment of the 20th Century, will surround the park. It will be set among the buildings housing the modern government Eisenhower helped to create.

The memorial will be a place to learn. Students of history can use 21st Century technology to access an e-memorial feature and, through the use of an app, a visitor may hear Eisenhower’s voice, or learn of his decision to send federal troops to Little Rock, Ark., to desegregate Central High School in 1957, and to accelerate America’s entrance into the space race to create NASA. There will be interviews, videos and timelines to capture the many critical achievements of his presidency. After all, as Eisenhower himself put it, eight years of peace and prosperity “didn’t just happen.”

Most of all, the memorial gives Kansas’ favorite son a place of recognition. A place for all Americans present and future to know Eisenhower. A place for the world to know our American values.

It will be a bold and enduring place of inspiration for all to learn that America is a place where a young man of humble beginnings may work hard, educate himself, serve his nation and lead a coalition of allies against the most daunting of adversaries. And still more remarkable, a man may have these achievements and then go on to shoulder the enormous responsibility of the highest office in the land.

This memorial is long overdue. As chairman of the Eisenhower Memorial Commission, I have worked to see that Sen. Bob Dole and some of his fellow members of the greatest generation are able to come to this place to salute their Allied Commander, many for the last time. In fact, the ceremony held this week in Washington includes several World War II veterans from Kansas, including Sen. Dole and Floyd Renken from Downs. Renken served for three years in the Army Air Corp with the 316 Troop Carrier Group. He was an aerial engineer aboard planes that dropped paratroopers, supplies, food and equipment to our men fighting in Europe. He participated in D-Day, dropping paratroopers inland to hold back the Germans by destroying bridges and intersections.

For all Kansans, this will be a place of pride. Kansas made this man. It was our people, our communities, our churches and schools that gave Eisenhower the foundation for his achievements. In the center of the memorial will be his words, “The proudest thing I can claim is that I am from Abilene.”

If you would like to find out more about the Eisenhower Memorial, visit eisenhowermemorial.org.

This story was originally published November 2, 2017 at 5:15 AM with the headline "Sen. Pat Roberts: Memorial lasting tribute to Ike."