The fact is the enemy has penetrated our wire and our mission is to restore the integrity of our position. Former Navy secretary James Webb, the son of an Air Force veteran, sees a lack of gratitude for the Marine Corps he himself served. The Air Force memorial would be 500 feet away from the Marines' monument and shielded from it by a stand of evergreens. But Marine supporters don't care how separate the new monument is. The Friends of Iwo Jima and Marine veterans have recently retained a top-notch law firm to battle the National Park Service over the environmental impact of the proposed memorial.
Marines never quit.
Last year during the budget negotiations, ti was Solomon who negotiated an agreement to consider moving the proposed Air Force site, only to have Senate Appropriations Committee chairman and former fighter pilot Ted Stevens nix the arrangement. If construction of the Air Force memorial is stalled until the end of next year, congressional approval of any monument would have to be reaffirmed, and the battlefield would again become Capitol Hill. Solomon's fellow former Marines, including senators Pat Roberts, Conrad Burns, and Craig Thomas, will continue his fight, while Stevens, with the support of minority leader Tom Daschle, an Air Force veteran, will continue to front for the Air Force. The Marines are willing to help the Air Force win quick approval for an alternative location near Arlington Cemetery, which would indeed be suitable. Through 45 years of quiet prayers, sunset parades and wreath-laying ceremonies, the Marines have an emotional and traditional claim on Arlington Ridge that ought to be honored.