The Medal of Honor Memorial is a monument located in

White River State Park White River State Park is an urban park in downtown Indianapolis, Indiana. Situated along the eastern and western banks of its namesake White River, the park covers . The park is home to numerous attractions, including the Eiteljorg Museum of A ...

in Indianapolis,

Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...

, United States. It is dedicated in honor of all recipients of the

Medal of Honor The Medal of Honor (MOH) is the United States Armed Forces' highest military decoration and is awarded to recognize American soldiers, sailors, marines, airmen, guardians and coast guardsmen who have distinguished themselves by acts of valo ...

, the

United States military The United States Armed Forces are the military forces of the United States. The armed forces consists of six service branches: the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, and Coast Guard. The president of the United States is th ...

's highest award for valor. The memorial was unveiled May 28, 1999, during

Memorial Day Memorial Day (originally known as Decoration Day) is a federal holiday in the United States for mourning the U.S. military personnel who have fought and died while serving in the United States armed forces. It is observed on the last Monda ...

weekend. The memorial is part of the Indiana War Memorials Commission.

Design

The Memorial is located on the north bank of the

Indiana Central Canal The Indiana Central Canal was a canal intended to connect the Wabash and Erie Canal to the Ohio River. It was funded by the Mammoth Internal Improvement Act, Indiana's attempt to take part in the canal-building craze started by the Erie Canal. ...

, adjacent to Military Park, and consists of 27 glass panels set in concrete bases.

Indiana Limestone Indiana limestone — also known as Bedford limestone in the building trade — has long been an economically important building material, particularly for monumental public structures. Indiana limestone is a more common term for Salem Limestone, ...

in shades of buff, gray, and pink are also a part of the monument. The panels are arranged into 15 walls, each representing an armed conflict in which a

was awarded. The names of the recipients are etched into the glass. At the time of dedication, there were 3,436 Medal of Honor recipients etched into the monument. The Memorial also contains an elaborate lighting system that illuminates certain panels to correspond with a 30-minute audio tour that is played over a speaker system. The audio tour is made up of stories about the wars, and accounts of living Medal recipients. Many of the stories were recorded by Medal of Honor recipients.

Origin

After reading an article in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' about a June 1998 meeting in upstate New York of the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, John Hodowal, chairman of the Indianapolis-based Indianapolis Power & Light (IPALCO), and his wife, Caroline, were inspired to assist in the creation of a memorial to honor these individuals whose courageous acts earned them the Medal of Honor, the United States' highest military honor. The site that was chosen was the same area where Indianapolis' first recorded Independence Day celebration was held. Additionally, the site was utilized as a military camp during the

U.S. Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states t ...

Construction and dedication

Site preparation began in November 1998, and construction of the memorial began in January 1999. 96 living Medal of Honor recipients attended the unveiling and dedication of the monument on May 28, 1999, the last

of the millennium.

Designers and sponsor

The designers of the monument were architect landscape artists Eric Fulford and Ann Reed of ROAMworks. IPALCO Enterprises sponsored the monument.

Award

The Memorial received a 2001 Merit Award from the American Society of Landscape Architects.

References