The artwork, “A Soldier’s Journey”, is not yet complete and “will not be installed before 2024”, so what you see above is a photo of the first half of the journey which continues as a drawing to the right. There is a statue of General Pershing in his park too with quotes and maps of the Western Front and the Meuse-Argonne Campaign. Nearby is an outline of L’Enfant’s plan for DC.

Pershing is the one general, besides Washington, to be named as “General of the Armies of the United States” after his success in WWI. He kept our forces together, instead of blending with allied forces, to increase their impact, and they broke the stalemate to win the war. Over the course of his career, the West Point grad commanded the next generation of leaders, including MacArthur, Marshall, Patton and Truman. Many of his earlier commands were much more problematic, including setting the perimeter at Wounded Knee, being called “Black Jack” because he led the 10th cavalry of “Buffalo Soldiers” (African Americans), fighting the Moros in the Philippines and his failed search for Pancho Villa. In all cases, he distinguished himself for his exceptional effort to understand his opponents.