This past Sunday evening, my family and I went to a free concert at Turner Park in Omaha in remembrance of 9/11. The concert was great and the music by the Omaha Symphony and the Air Force Heartland of America Band was very inspiring. While we were there I took some nice sunset photos of the World War I memorial that stands at the corner of Farnam Street and Turner Boulevard. The memorial was finished in 1937 and was financed by the Omaha chapter of the American War Mothers. It was built by the federal Works Project Administration. The three stars featured at the top of the arch are painted blue in honor of living veterans, silver for disabled veterans and gold to honor those who died in combat. The memorial underwent some recent restoration work by McGill Restoration in August 2011 and has now been restored to its former glory. My favorite little detail of this and all monuments built before World War II is how it refers to World War I as the "World's War" with no one guessing at the time that there would be yet another world war in the near future. Along these lines, I think that the most unsettling title for World War I has always been "The Great War." The juxtaposition of "great" with "war" has always seemed slightly uncomfortable to me. At any rate, this memorial remains a small but but proud Omaha monument to those brave men who fought and died in the first "World's War."
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