Korean War Veterans Memorial Mural Wall Designer Louis Nelson Talks About His Inspiration

Industrial designer Louis Nelson is an Army veteran, a helicopter pilot and the creative mind behind the Mural Wall at the Korean War Veterans Memorial on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

Although he's designed everything from skis to the United Nations' Dag Hammarskjold Medal, the subject of memorials is his passion. His new book, "Mosaic: War Monument Mystery," is about his life, experiences and motivations. Central to that is the subject of war memorials, about which he is an expert.

"Memorials are important to a lot of people," Nelson tells Military.com. "It's important to the people who served because it's recognition from the country they served. They can go to the memorial and feel a sense of presence and belonging."

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In creating the concept for the Mural Wall, Nelson was free to design anything he wanted. To start, he considered how individuals remember their lost loved ones. For individuals, he considered, one might build a statue, such as the Lincoln Memorial. To remember many people, one would memorialize their names, like the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall does.

There was only one other way he could think of to memorialize important people.

"I thought of my grandmother, and I remember she had a photograph of my cousin who was in military uniform," Nelson recalls. "She had it up on the mantel, and she had another one on her bed stand. He was stationed in Japan and had served in Korea. Of course, the only other way that you remember and honor somebody is, you have a photograph of them. So it just was important for me then that the wall would be a photograph."

The men and women who served in Korea became central to his design for the Mural Wall. The wall features 2,500 actual images of real service members in the Korean War, taken by military photographers and sandblasted in black granite.

It also shows the weapons, equipment and vehicles used in the war. Nelson wanted every branch of service, every job they performed and the tools they used to fight the war to be memorialized forever.

"Some of the faces would be life-size so that you would have eye-to-eye contact. Somehow or another, they would see that this is the face of America that we sent to war," Nelson says. "They look like the kids of today, and I think they will look the same 20 years from now."

Nelson worked closely with Frank Gaylord, designer of "The Column," 19 figures marching in a patrol, representing members of the Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force. When reflected into the wall, there appears to be 38 troops, representing both the 38-month duration of the war, as well as the 38th parallel, the dividing line between North and South Korea.

"Nobody told me what to do," Nelson says of his design. "But they told Frank [Gaylord] they wanted 38 figures. That was way too many for the space, so we did 19, thinking we could get the other 19 from the polished mural wall. They are beautifully reflected back."

When the Korean War Veterans Memorial was unveiled in 1995, Korean War veterans thought it was beautiful, too.

"A guy in a suit and tie came running up to me," Nelson says. "Somehow or another, he knew that I designed the mural. He told me that for the first time in his life, he could see it all. He had been there in the war, but he couldn't talk about it. From 1953 to 1995. Through tears, he said he could finally understand what he'd given up his youth for, and he wanted me to know what the mural meant to him."

Nelson reflects on the full story of designing the Korean War Veterans Memorial in his book, because of all his works, it's the one about which he gets the most questions and letters. He also wrote it for another reason, which he explains by quoting one of the last lines of the book.

"The story is not about the Memorial, but it's about the people of the Memorial. Not about the stone and bronze, but about the blood. Not about the moment, but about endurance. Not of yesterday, but of tomorrow. Not of what had happened or why it happened, but how we have changed and grown because of it. For in struggle is growth."

To learn more about designer and Army veteran Louis Nelson, his work and his life, visit his website. His book, "Mosaic: War Monument Mystery," is on bookshelves now.

-- Blake Stilwell can be reached at blake.stilwell@military.com. He can also be found on Twitter @blakestilwell or on Facebook.

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