Indianapolis' Dedication To Veterans Centers On Downtown Monument

By Alex Ashlock, Here & Now

The Soldiers and Sailors Monument in 1947. (AP Photo)
 

The Soldiers and Sailors Monument rises 284 feet above Monument Circle in downtown Indianapolis.

You can take an elevator to the top, or you can trudge up the 331 steps. Either way, the view is worth the trip.

Down on the ground, the sidewalk around the monument is marked by bricks with the names of veterans. On Wednesday, a ceremony honored retired Brig. Gen. J. Stewart Goodwin, the executive director of the Indiana War Memorials Commission, with a new brick.

Goodwin says Indianapolis devotes more public space to honor veterans than any other city.

“We understand that only 1 out of 10 people who live in our country today have served, so we call it the '90-10 rule,’” he says. “We think it’s time for the 90 percent to learn about what the 10 percent did, and what we’re gonna tell you about are ordinary Hoosiers that have done extraordinary things.”

The Soldiers and Sailors Monument was originally designed to honor the more than 24,000 Indiana soldiers who died during the Civil War, including Pvt. John Williams of Portland, Indiana, who was the last Union soldier to perish in the conflict.

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