D-Day Memorial Faces Financial Ruin

[fontman]

June 3, 2009
Associated Press

BEDFORD, Virginia - On the eve of the 65th anniversary of the D-Day invasion of the coast of France in World War II, the foundation that runs the National D-Day Memorial is on the brink of financial ruin.

Donations are down in the poor economy. The primary base of support - World War II veterans - is dying off. And the privately funded memorial to the Allied invasion of Normandy, on June 6, 1944, is struggling to draw visitors. It is hundreds of miles from a major city - in Bedford, Virginia, a community that suffered among the highest U.S. per-capita losses.

Facing the prospect of cutting staff and hours, the memorial's president believes its only hope for long-term survival is to be taken over by the National Park Service or by a college or university.

So far, he's found no takers.

"All institutions are in various states of privation of one kind or another," foundation President William McIntosh said. "Everybody's endowment has been slapped around pretty badly by the economy."

But by contrast, the National World War II Museum in New Orleans, which opened as a D-Day museum in 2000, is thriving with an $8 million budget supported largely by 120,000 memberships.

The Bedford memorial, about 115 miles west of Richmond, Virginia's capital, opened eight years ago at a ceremony attended by President George W. Bush.

Several thousand visitors are expected at the memorial Saturday to mark the anniversary.

The outdoor museum tells the story of the Normandy invasion in sculptures of soldiers and their leaders. Air jets shoot mini-geysers of water to mimic enemy gunfire as bronze figures of soldiers struggle for shore in a reflecting pool. Some 10,000 Allied troops were killed or wounded in the costly landing.

The memorial's attention to detail evokes an emotional response for those who lived through D-Day, said James A. Huston, a World War II veteran and historian who will receive the French Legion of Honor on Friday in Paris.

"The whole idea is well done," said Huston, retired dean of nearby Lynchburg College. "It tells the story."

The privately owned foundation faced financial disaster soon after its 2001 opening, prompting a criminal investigation and a bankruptcy protection filing.

Federal fraud charges eventually were dropped against the memorial's former director, Richard B. Burrow, who led aggressive efforts to build the monument in time for many aging World War II veterans to see it. Soaring construction costs put the foundation some $7 million in debt, but McIntosh said donations erased the deficit by 2006.

Still, as McIntosh looks ahead, he sees a bleak future.

"It makes me sad for America that we can't do a bit better than this," he said.

Democratic Rep. Tom Perriello of Virginia, whose district includes the memorial, plans to introduce legislation this week to transfer the site to the Park Service.

The foundation president has courted other potential owners including Liberty University, the fundamentalist Christian school founded by the Rev. Jerry Falwell.

McIntosh, 65, would like to see the memorial's future secure before his contract ends in a year.

"It is in a very good position to move to the next level, to open a new chapter on its story," he said.

[Wyoming]

This just ain't right.

Fontman, I am sending it out to some folks.

Thanks and Semper Fidelis.

[Wyoming]

Well ****, edit timed out again

I meant Semper Fidelis!!

[DocGreek]

BEDFORD, VIRGINIA??? Sounds like a kick-back to some wealthy politico, or land baron! WWII Vets deserve BETTER!! The monument SHOULD have been built where ALL the other war monuments are.....WASHINGTON, D.C.!!! LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION!!!....and...DUH! DUH! DUH!!!!!.....DOC