Life is full of excitement and challenges. Having passed through the Director of the Miramar National Cemetery with full support (review #4), our Request to Donate a Monument went up to the VA District Office in Oakland for its final review and acceptance (review #5). Except, although accepted as designed, the Director there decided that the VA in Washington DC needed a final approval as well. Why Not? Now, the Undersecretary of the VA must give his approval (review #6). We have no idea of the time period for this to happen, but we are looking for a positive result. As stated some time ago, monuments do not grow out of the ground by themselves, people must make them happen. We are Navy Divers and can do anything! Take a vent, Green Diver.
The conversation with the Director of Cemeteries (Washington DC) went well. Three offices of the VA had reviewed our design and the DC said that our monument will be the finest of all the monuments (at its level – not in the level of 12-foot tall statues) at all the National Cemeteries. Being Request number six, he still had some toning down requirements… and a creative suggestion. After some reviews and redesigning by our monument team, we are about to send in Request number seven to the VA in Washington DC. Regarding the bronze diving pins on the monument, sadly our jeweler in Albuquerque has closed his business. However, we have found another jeweler artist in Wisconsin who is looking forward to making our pins. We are close!
The team convened for a meeting to discussed the VA continued requirements and restraints. There was much discussion on the final laser engraved back side picture and on the side of the monument. The team is attempting to depict military diving and the VA wants the pictures to be of a particular nature. We are attempting to appease both. The team brought in one of the team member’s daughter to help with the art work. We did have one of the dive pins cast (1st Class pin) for the monument, it looks awesome! We talked about having the whole line of pins cast to sale for anyone that wants one or two? Currently, no price has been set, they are not cheap.
Early in September 2024 we submitted our #8 Request to Donate a Monument to the VA and we are eagerly awaiting a positive response. Once the approval comes, the monument will be completed and shipped in about three months. In early 2025, on a pleasant day in San Diego at Miramar National Cemetery, we will have the dedication ceremony. Soon.
Hopefully.
During this last year we had a face-to-face meeting of the Design Team, when fine nuances and redesigns were determined. The big thing with the VA has been our use of the Laser Company to create artwork on the monument… to make it more than just a lump of granite with a few words scratched on it. A piece of artwork in itself. We have removed two pieces of artwork on the front panels at the VA’s request, and probably the artwork on the side (a collage of diving systems) will not be approved. Our hopes go for the picture on the back side — a re-creation of a diving operation off an ARS, with divers descending into the dark ocean depths — will be approved. The concern from the VA is that it will set a precedent for other future such monuments. We think it tells the diving story and will help viewers to better remember their Diver family member who has passed on.
We have had assistance from the daughter of one Design Team member and the neighbor of another who used their knowledge of computer graphics and art to redraw and make adjustments to the pictures that we have submitted. This was a gracious volunteer action on both of their parts, and their names will be listed in another such announcement. We found a new bronze-caster artist for the Diver Pins that will line the top panel of the monument. He lives in the southern end of Wisconsin and is truly an artist. Of course our monument company in Ohio and the Foundation and Placing company in Fallbrook are still with us. We also met a new requirement of the VA, that being obtaining permission from the Trademark Department of the US Navy to use the Diver Seal and the Diver Pins, and from the Marines to use their Diver Pin. At first we thought permission might come from the Navy Exchange!
There will be the Post-Ceremony Celebration gathering immediately after the ceremony, to which all will be invited (RSVPs will be appreciated for food-planning, of course), and the drawings for all the great prizes (including the Glock 19) will take place then. Details will follow, once we receive approval of the monument.
We appreciate, so very much, all the donors who have given their money to help make this monument come to existence. Every single dollar has gone to (or is still held for) the monument’s production – we have not even funded stamps from your donations — every dollar is going to the monument.
So… hopefully the next posting will be that the VA has approved design #8.
That title sounds like part of a Disney song, but that is what has happened! Our design was approved! In fact, it was approved last March, however it had a big tag on it. The VA had approved us as a “Non-Standard Monument” which put us in the class of a 50-foot tall statue of Athena with a blinking red light atop to warn off commercial airliners! That, plus requirements for engineering soil studies, special measurements and drawings, plus more things that would have just priced our monument into the stratosphere. So it really was not “approved” in our eyes. Enter the Director of Miramar National Cemetery. She stood up for us, and after heavy, late-night negotiations in the dark alleys of Washington DC, finally the VA relented and agreed that our monument should be approved as a regular, “Standard Monument.” With that welcome word, we asked the monument company to produce our design and just today, the 24th of Sep, it is being crated up to be shipped to Vista, California, for further placement on the cement foundation that the company there placed two weeks ago. We of the Design Team are so pleased. We appreciate the support all of our donors who gave so generously. We appreciate the work the Design Team members have done. We appreciate the Director of the Cemetery. We appreciate so many things in life.
The Dedication Ceremony will be on Friday, 5 December 2025, starting at 10 AM at Admiral Baker Park, and we want you to come. If you are an Active Duty Diver, Reserve Diver, ex-Diver, or Retired Diver, we especially want you to come. Hopefully Active Duty commands will release their divers on 5 December in time to make the ceremony before 10 AM (written that way for the civilians…). This monument is for you and for those divers who have gone before us. The diving community includes: Salvage, SEABEE UCT, SEALs, EOD, and USMC Combatant Divers, and all are represented on the monument with oversize Bronze custom-made diver pins. Afterwards, we will have a post-ceremony party that will go until 4 PM that will have a band and chow, and the big raffle ticket drawing (first place is the Glock 19!). Finally!
Dedicating a monument is a significant event, like the christening and launching a ship…. Except 500 years from now the monument will still exist. Invitations are being sent to many VIPs, and general invitations are going to commands and mailing lists we have obtained from the Dark Web.
Change of location; The Ceremony and party are at the same location.
Admiral Baker Park -2400 Admiral Baker Road, San Diego CA 92124
“I’m not crazy about reality, but it’s still the only place to get a decent meal.” ~ Groucho Marx
The Dedication Ceremony for the US Navy Diver Monument is scheduled for Friday, 5 December at 10 AM and we are so excited!
However, there is a big change of location. The Dedication Ceremony will be at Admiral Baker Park in San Diego, followed by the post-ceremony Party also there. You may ask, “Why?”
Simply — We got authorization to proceed with the Monument production and placement last July, but then just three days ago we were informed that the VA wanted a few more documents. Easy Day. Unfortunately, that meant that the monument could not be placed with the other monuments at Miramar National Cemetery — yet. But it will.
We have so many people coming from all over America, that we arranged for the monument to be brought from Vista, California where it awaits, to the Admiral Baker Park where we will all be able to see it. The monument will remain as part of the dedication ceremony. This is a different path than originally planned, but this will cut down your travel and present the monument there to be seen. You will be more than pleased when you actually see the US Navy Diver Monument!
So. Please come directly to Admiral Baker Park prior to 10AM on the 5th. There will be signs to guide you to the ceremony location. Afterwards, shift right over to the chow line, and don’t forget your beer… or soft drink, and enjoy the music. The prize drawing will happen then, as well.
