About 700,000 U.S. military personnel took part in Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm, the 1990 to 1991 mission to drive invading Iraqi forces from Kuwait.
Now, 35 years later, Gulf War veterans have a memorial in Washington to commemorate the conflict.
On Saturday, the National Desert Shield and Desert Storm Memorial was dedicated on the National Mall. It honors those who fought there and about 300 U.S. troops who lost their lives during the two military operations.
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“The Desert Shield and Desert Storm Memorial honors the courage of the Americans who answered our nation’s call, the sacrifice of those who never returned home, and the families who supported them,” said Interior Secretary Doug Burgum. “Here on the National Mall, their service will be remembered with the gratitude and respect it deserves, and their legacy will endure for generations.”
It’s located just north of the Lincoln Memorial and steps away from the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
Iraqi forces invaded neighboring Kuwait in August 1990 to seize control of the country’s oil resources. Saddam Hussein also claimed that Kuwait was part of Iraq.
In response, the U.S. under President George H.W. Bush launched Operation Desert Shield to protect Saudi Arabia from potential attack. The Bush administration built an international coalition of countries that liberated Kuwait through Operation Desert Storm in 1991.
“We answered Iraq’s infringement on U.S. and allied interests with clarity and an appropriate, yet decisive application of military force in pursuit of a scoped political goal,” Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby said during the dedication ceremony.
“America worked with many others to assemble a broad coalition of allies and partners bound by common interests and a shared prescription of the values at stake. This coalition acted together with a defined objective and brought together the overwhelming military power needed to achieve that goal,” Mr. Colby said.
The memorial features curving, dunelike landscape forms that encircle a shaded, water-filled sanctuary grove. The interior walls feature bronze bas-relief and stone panels recounting the sequence of events in the Gulf War.
Kuwait celebrates its liberation from Iraq with a national holiday. Defense Minister Abdullah Ali Al-Salem Al-Sabah said during the ceremony that Kuwait has not forgotten the U.S. troops who liberated the country.
“American soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines left their families and traveled to a country many of them had never seen. They did it for a people they had never met,” the defense minister said. “We honor the memory of the fallen, and we salute those who served.”
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