West Coast Memorial to the Missing of World War II, War memorial at Presidio Park in San Francisco, United States
The West Coast Memorial to the Missing of World War II is a war monument in Presidio Park in San Francisco with a curved granite wall. The structure displays the names of approximately 413 service members who went missing in Pacific coastal waters during the Second World War.
The American Battle Monuments Commission built the memorial, which was dedicated on 29 November 1960. Architect Hervey Parke Clark designed it with landscape architect Lawrence Halprin; sculptor Jean de Marco carved the robed female figure holding a shield, work that won him the 1965 Henry Hering Memorial Award. It is one of three ABMC memorials to the missing of World War II, alongside the East Coast Memorial in New York and the Honolulu Memorial.
The memorial bears the names of service members lost in Pacific waters, creating a place where visitors and families can pay respects to those who died. The inscriptions make it possible to remember individual people and their sacrifice.
The memorial stands at the intersection of Lincoln and Kobbe Boulevards on the western edge of the Presidio, about 300 metres from the Pacific shore and 1.5 km south of the Golden Gate Bridge. A paved forecourt with an L-shaped stone bench faces the wall. The site is open and exposed to coastal wind and fog.
The flat stone relief above the east wing's inscription shows a winged horse and fish, representing the constellations Pegasus and Pisces. These stars served as navigation aids for sailors, linking the memorial to the seafarers who were lost offshore.
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