The Association of the Oldest Inhabitants of the District of Columbia and the District of Columbia National Guard will host a ceremony starting at 10:30 a.m. on Sun, Nov. 11, 2018, at the D.C. War Memorial on the National Mall. The ceremony will honor service members from D.C. who gave their lives in service to the United States during World War I and celebrate the centennial of Armistice Day.
William Brown, President of AOI, Maj. Gen. William J. Walker, commanding general, D.C. National Guard, Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton and Chairman Phil Mendelson will provide remarks.
A national minute of silence and the tolling of the “Bells of Peace” at 11 a.m. will mark the centennial of the Eleventh Hour of the Eleventh Day of the Eleventh Month in 1918 when the guns fell silent on the battlefields of Europe.
The memorial was first dedicated on Nov. 11, 1931 and re-dedicated on Nov. 10, 2011 after being rehabilitated. The inscription of the names of the fallen on the D.C. War Memorial are listed in alphabetical order without regard to rank, gender or race.
The 1st Separate Battalion, D.C. National Guard, was activated to federal military service 17 days before the U.S. officially entered the war to protect government buildings, railroads and bridge approaches into the District, as well as city power plants and reservoirs. D.C. National Guard Soldiers fought in Meuse-Argonne, Lorraine and Alsace, where they were awarded the Croix de Guerre – one of the highest honors of the French military.
The D.C. War Memorial is located in Ash Grove along Independence Ave Southwest directly opposite the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial. It is accessible via the Smithsonian Metro Station’s Agriculture Department entrance (SW corner 12th St & Independence Ave, SW) and walking west along Independence Avenue Southwest; by parking in West Potomac Park (metered) and walking to the memorial via either the Franklin Roosevelt Memorial or the King Memorial via West Basin Drive; or, by taking the D.C. Circulator’s Mall route and disembarking on West Basin Drive at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial stop. For this event, with the assistance of the U.S. Park Police, the west bound curb side lane of Independence Ave Southwest will be designated for drop-offs and pick-ups in front of the memorial.
Media Contacts: Bill Brown, AOI president, 202-342-1638, aoiofdc@gmail.com or Capt. Alan Ortiz, public affairs officer, D.C. National Guard, 202-821-7181, alan.n.ortiz.mil@mail.mil