ABMC Secretary Max Cleland along with Presidio Trust Executive Director Craig Middleton laid a wreath at the West Coast Memorial, located within the Presidio of San Francisco, to rededicate the memorial on Monday, November 17, 2014. Extensive upgrades have been made to the site to improve the wheelchair accessibility.
The memorial was built in the late 1950s above the Pacific Ocean by the American Battle Monuments Commission. It honors members of the Armed Forces who lost their lives in the Pacific coastal waters during World War II.
The names of 413 service men and women are inscribed on the curved granite wall that sits behind a statue of Columbia, the female personification of America often used in wartime imagery. The memorial was designed by two San Francisco architects, Hervey Parke Clark and John F. Beuttler, with famous landscape architect Lawrence Halprin, who also designed the grounds of the Letterman Digital Arts Center. The Columbia statue was made by sculptor Jean De Marco in New York City. A dedication ceremony occurred at the memorial on November 29, 1960, where General John L. DeWitt and Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz delivered addresses.