NATIONALLY TELEVISED EVENT HONORS TRUE VALOR OF THE DOUGHBOYS IN ILLUMINATION CEREMONY OF WWI MEMORIAL

KENT, CT, UNITED STATES, August 8, 2024 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Master sculptor Sabin Howard designed, created, and sculpted A Soldier’s Journey, the sculptural heart of the National WWI Memorial to be installed in Washington, DC next month.

America’s heroes of a hundred years ago have waited a long time for their courage under fire to be memorialized. They served and suffered, giving their all, in the industrialized killing fields of Belleau Wood and Flanders and the Somme in 1918, but it will be September 13, 2024 when Howard’s magnificent A Soldier’s Journey is illuminated and dedicated to their memory.

American military was not ready to deploy troops as soon as President Woodrow Wilson persuaded Congress to declare war in 1917. Various branches of military had to ramp up quickly to ensure that troops and support personnel, such as nurses, would quickly reach Europe—and be ready for action.

Initially reluctant to enter the war, brave Americans from around the country rose to the occasion. They answered the call to duty. They were ready to give everything in service to God, country, and civilization. Sabin Howard, widely considered America’s Michelangelo, captures this pivotal moment in American history with his breath-taking sculptural scenes in A Soldier’s Journey.

Howard’s massive 38-figure monument opens with a father kneeling in front of his daughter, receiving his helmet from her. Their gazes cross tenderly. The wife and mother, called the Standing Mom, rests her hands on the man’s shoulders, a loving gesture. It’s a patriotic scene, the calm before the storm, a family coming together before one member makes the ultimate sacrifice for his country.

In the next scene, our wife becomes the Heroic Mom, grasping her Beloved’s arm as he hears the call to battle. The doughboy dad surges forward to join his brothers-in-arms.

Howard’s skill as a figurative sculptor is such that the Heroic Mom, though bronze, appears to tremble with her conflicting feelings. She is the individual everywoman who is torn up about her mate leaving for war; she is also an allegory for the United States, that had hitherto followed an isolationist policy, and was hesitant to send its sons and daughters to Europe.

The next scene of A Soldier’s Journey shows our doughboy hero in battle, leading his men and charging forward. His mouth widens animalistically, perhaps screaming, as Marine Dan Daly did, “Come on you sons-of-bitches, do you want to live forever?”

Howard’s shocking Battle Scene encompasses the breadth of the American never-give-up, can-do spirit, as well as the primal rage and chaos of the battlefield. The figures move together, interwoven and almost in flight, to engage the enemy.

After the madness comes the sorrowful cost of war. Howard depicts the tragedy of war with a pieta-like scene, two soldiers cradling their fallen brother. He also shows a Shellshocked soldier, his face distorted with suffering, flanked by nurses who lift soldiers to heal them.

Howard’s immense frieze is not a glorification of war but a tribute to healing, courage, and the human spirit rising to every occasion.

The final scene shows the return of the doughboys home, under a proud American flag.

As The Washington Post notes, “Once installed, it will be the largest free-standing high-relief bronze in the Western Hemisphere, according to the World War I Centennial Commission.” The valiant doughboys will finally get their due at home.

The Illumination Ceremony on September 13, 2024 at 6:45 pm will be live-streamed and covered by National television.

Rebecca DeSimone, Esquire
Sabin Howard Sculpture LLC
[email protected]
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