Two sculptors with strong ties to Vermont are playing pivotal roles in creating a major new memorial on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. that will honor veterans of Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm. Emily Bedard, who grew up in Milton, Vermont, designed large stone panels for the memorial, while Rob Eccleston, a veteran who served at Vermont's Army Mountain Warfare School, created massive bronze birds that will serve as centerpieces for the monument.
The Desert Shield and Desert Storm Memorial will commemorate the U.S.-led coalition operations in 1990 and 1991 that successfully removed Iraqi forces from Kuwait after Saddam Hussein's army invaded the oil-rich nation. The memorial is scheduled for dedication in 2026, with full details to be released in mid-January by the National Desert Storm Memorial Association, the nonprofit organization overseeing the project.
Bedard, who now lives and works in New York City, said working on veterans memorials has been a source of deep personal satisfaction throughout her career. Her passion for military commemorative art began early when she helped restore a Civil War memorial in Connecticut. "They gave me the chance to use my artwork in a way that was giving back to the community, celebrating our country and our veterans," Bedard explained in an interview. "When I was growing up, I had a love for the military. My father was a veteran in the Navy, and my grandparents were veterans, and my classmates had parents who were veterans who had been in Desert Storm."
The sculptor revealed that she once considered joining the U.S. Navy herself, with aspirations of becoming a fighter pilot. "I decided to go into a career of the arts, but I always had that deep-down desire to be doing something of service to my country," she said. "When I had that first opportunity to do a veterans memorial, I finally got to have that feeling that I was using my talent to give back to the country."
For Bedard, having a memorial on the National Mall represents the pinnacle of achievement for an American sculptor. "Absolutely, for a sculptor, having a monument on the Mall is sort of like the highest level of achievement as an American sculptor," she said. "That's sort of what you set your sight on, like Daniel Chester French with the Lincoln Memorial - that's his crowning work that we all know him for. Being able to have that opportunity at such an early part of my career is very exciting and definitely creates kind of a pinch-me moment."
Bedard's artistic vision for the memorial centers on creating an immersive experience that allows visitors to connect emotionally with the conflict and its participants. The memorial features curved walls approximately 7.5 feet tall with larger-than-life figures carved into them. "You are meant to experience it by walking along it and taking in this imagery step by step, but also as a large environment," she explained. "What we're really going for is to create an emotional impact through this commemorative work to make people feel like they're right there on the ground."
The stone panels tell the story of Desert Storm chronologically, depicting the logistical buildup, the air war, and ground operations. "It's showing this American strength, this logistical feat of Desert Storm, but also reminding us that we're risking our people in the end," Bedard said. "These are our sons and our daughters and our brothers and our fathers who are there on the ground." The curved design creates changing shadow patterns throughout the day as the sun moves across the sky, giving the memorial an almost animated quality.
Bedard often works with veteran models to ensure accuracy in her depictions. "They are wearing the uniforms correctly and holding the guns right and move in the way that they were trained," she noted. "They often have an expression on their face that is very solemn and very telling of their personal experience. They're not just actors." The panels also incorporate desert landscapes, rocky terrain, and dust swirling in the wind to create what she describes as a "swirling emotional pattern."
The sculptor hopes veterans and their families will see themselves reflected in the memorial. "I want them to be able to look at it and see themselves in it," she said. "I want the families to be able to visit and see that they themselves or their parents or uncles, children, whoever they were connected with, that they're seeing something on that wall that represents them and reminds them of the service and the sacrifice that they gave to the country."
Bedard also defended the significance of commemorating Desert Storm, addressing criticism that the conflict was too brief to warrant a memorial. "I feel that often successful missions are forgotten because they were executed so well," she argued. "This was a mission that was very well planned. The action of it was very smoothly carried out and quick. We got in, we did what we were supposed to do, and we got out, and there was minimal loss of life, and we liberated Kuwait. That needs to be remembered as a model of how to approach future conflicts, if and when they arise."
Rob Eccleston, the second Vermont-connected artist working on the memorial, brings a unique perspective as both a sculptor and a military veteran. His service included work at the Army Mountain Warfare School at the Camp Ethan Allen Training Site in Jericho, Vermont. For the memorial, he created an eagle with a 10.5-foot wingspan and a falcon with a 7.5-foot wingspan, both to be cast in stainless steel.
"The eagle and the falcon represent America's role in a multinational coalition to liberate Kuwait," Eccleston explained from his Colorado studio. "The United States headed up this coalition. So the eagle is flying along a sculpted desert-like wall, granite wall, soaring in a way that it's leaving the desert. We wanted to send the message that we are liberators, we weren't occupiers, and the falcon behind it is the national bird - it's a Saker falcon, the national bird of Kuwait - and it has a more upward trajectory symbolizing its liberation."
Eccleston emphasized the importance of respecting existing memorials on the National Mall. "One of the mandates from the Commission of Fine Arts is that it not interfere with the sight lines of the Lincoln Memorial," he said. "Any new memorial that comes after the original memorials on the Mall, we have to pay the utmost respect to the original memorials and not overshadow them. Our memorial is more of a landscape-based memorial."
As a veteran himself, Eccleston finds deep meaning in his work on military memorials. "It's an honor," he said. "I kind of sought out to be a memorial sculptor when I started sculpting. I like telling a story, and it's really important that the story be true. I want to tell the story of heroism. When you watch TV or movies, what is considered a hero might not be what a hero is in real life. If I can tell the story of somebody who acted with valor and honor during combat, there's no better story that I can think of telling."
The memorial will be located at 23rd and Constitution Avenue with the Lincoln Memorial visible in the background. The design includes multiple elements beyond the sculptural panels and birds. A central water feature shaped like a shield and cast in bronze will represent the multinational coalition, while another wall will feature carvings representing different branches of the military along with a commemorative wreath.
Eccleston envisions the memorial as both a place of reflection and celebration. "I want people to walk through the memorial and not only get a sense of the seriousness of the story that we're telling, but notice that it's an uplifting experience," he said. "Veterans will come through and they'll be able to see the carvings of experiences that they had during the war, during the buildup and the conflict, and then they'll get to my sculpture which will depict the liberation of Kuwait."
Both artists emphasized that their primary goal is honoring the service members themselves. "When you take the politics out of war and defense, you're really left with the men and women as individuals who agree to serve our country, and these memorials honor those individuals," Eccleston noted. "At the end of the day, the most important person to please when making a memorial are the soldiers, sailors, marines, and airmen themselves."
The Vermont connection to National Mall memorials extends beyond this project. The late Frank Gaylord of Barre, Vermont, designed the 19 statues for the Korean War Veterans Memorial, work that was widely praised for its accuracy in depicting uniforms, equipment, and the harsh weather conditions faced by service members in Korea. Gaylord once told the Burlington Free Press that seeing his sculptures arrive on the Mall was the highlight of his life.
Eccleston is currently working on another major commemorative project in his Colorado studio - sculpting members of the 1980 gold medal-winning U.S. men's Olympic hockey team for the "Monument to a Miracle," which will commemorate the famous "Miracle on Ice" moment and be installed in Lake Placid, New York, site of the 1980 Winter Olympics.
The National Desert Storm Memorial Association continues fundraising efforts for the new landmark, with construction well underway. Both sculptors stressed the importance of creating a space where veterans can bring their children and grandchildren to share their stories and connect with others who served. The dedication ceremony in 2026 will mark the completion of a project years in the making, honoring a conflict that, while brief, demonstrated the effectiveness of careful planning, coalition building, and decisive military action.
