Please don't send me any hate mail about this issue. It's just an observation. Early in the 20th century we created great heroic images of the American fighting man with about a dozen different Iron Mike bronze sculptures about heroism in WW1. The 1/400 sec Joe Rosenthal photo of the Flag raising on Iwo Jima in WW2 has been the most copied photo in history and duplicated in statues like the one in Quantico and there are probably many more WW2 heroic depictions of the American Military. Korea became the "forgotton war" and America only managed to officially commemorate the heroism of the American fighting man about 50 years after the war. The trend after VietNam seemed to be the anti-heroic statue. The Korean War memorial is a squad of Military personnel seemingly just walking with weapons slung. The VietNam memorial (not counting the Wall) is three Military guys with weapons slung. Maybe the trend is changing or maybe it's a generation thing but the 5th (WW2) Marine Div. Association commissioned a 6 ft. bronze called "BAR on the Beach" and depicts a real incident where a BAR man stood up under withering enemy fire and used his BAR to take out a Japanese machine gun nest. It will be displayed at the Marine Corps Museum. The photo in the "Marine Corps League" magazine of the remnants of the 5th Marine Corps Div reduced to the size of a modern day grey haired squad dedicating the statue is a poignant reminder.
