Debate Continues Over Home for a WWII Monument

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A MONUMENT TO 40 U.S. SOLDIERS who died in an air crash in Australia during World War II is caught in battle over its ultimate resting spot.

As The Post's Steve Vogel reports, the monument, which is 5 feet high, 4 feet wide and made of pink Queensland granite, sits at the Australian Embassy in D.C. The governments of Australia and the state of Queensland, where the crash happened, donated the granite for the memorial. The incident is Australia's worst air disaster.

But a memorial association has pressed for the marker to be moved to a more prominent location, either at Arlington National Cemetery or nearby at Fort Meyer, the site of the U.S. military's first test flight in 1908.

The Army has said it will not move the monument to Arlington National Cemetery without a congressional OK, saying that the cemetery doesn't have much room for additional memorials. The Air Force has offered another option: flying the monument to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, where it would be part of the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force.

» "Searching for a Home for a World War II Memorial" [WaPo]

Photo courtesy Bakers Creek Memorial Association