On the morning of Wednesday February seventeenth, President Harwell sat behind his desk in the oval office with a cup of strong coffee. He hadn’t been sleeping well again, but no one, not even Mrs. Dawson, could tell him to ease up on the caffeine. After having listened to the most recent plan put forth by his Secretary of Defense, he praised the man for having developed such a sound idea. The concept was perfect in that it would offer the proper amount of respect due to at least a portion of those who had been slain in the attacks, while also not being ridiculously over the top. The President had accordingly given his complete blessing to move forward, but felt both ashamed and embarrassed while doing so. For some unknown reason which was certainly, at least in part, due to his own negligence, such a plan to design and construct fitting memorials had never been discussed. Admittedly the topic was something which should have been acted upon soon after the attacks in November, but with plans for retaliation toward Syria and then the Texas issue taking center stage, honoring a long list of people by way of memorials had been unforgivably overlooked.

Within the presentation of his plan, the Secretary of Defense reminded the President that there would be no concern over budget for its completion. It was no secret to either of them, or nearly anybody else in America for that matter, that Congress had provided the military industrial complex with billions and billions of dollars each and every year for decades on end. Additionally the Secretary stated that the allocated funds for a memorial at both Annapolis and West Point wouldn’t even make the slightest dent in that budget or upon the equipment and hardware it was intended for. To further emphasize his point the Secretary claimed that if just one penny were to be withheld from the yearly salary of every member of the armed services stationed in the United States alone, it would generate more than enough finances to cover any and all associated expenses. Although the thought of such fundraising would of course never actually be acted upon, the Secretary wanted to make sure that President Harwell fully understood what they were looking at.

When asked about a similar memorial for the Air Force Academy, the Secretary stated, “Well Mr. President, I don’t feel that would be appropriate.”

“Not appropriate Mr. Secretary? Why do you say that?”

“Well sir. I believe that such a memorial in Colorado Springs could be perceived as a slap in the face by those at Annapolis or West Point.”

“That’s interesting, please explain.”

The Secretary then reminded the President that although there had been active duty military personnel, civilian casualties, and members of the media killed at all three locations, Colorado Springs was different from the other two in one glaring respect. The multi-faceted attack of November fourteenth had not resulted in the deaths of any cadets at the Air Force Academy. The only three which had unfortunately met their demise on that day were cadets who had been mistakenly identified as potential terrorists and killed by members from within their own ranks. Conversely, Annapolis had lost four hundred and three midshipmen while West point had lost three hundred and eighty-one cadets to the actions of the terrorists. Therefore it was the opinion of the Secretary that no such memorial to honor fallen cadets at the Colorado Springs location would be necessary or well received.

After the President briefly digested those facts and subsequently agreed with the logical assessment, he turned to inquiries of the memorials which would be constructed upon the grounds of Annapolis and West Point. The Secretary addressed those questions by stating that he believed both the overall design and ornamentation of the two memorials should be appropriately left to those administrators at the respective academies. However there should be specifications for a mandatory inclusion upon each, and those would need to be made perfectly clear before work could begin. His suggestion to the President was that aside from simply listing the names of every cadet or midshipmen who had been killed, the list should be broken down into an alphabetical rundown of those from each individual state. By employing such a method, the intent of the Secretary was that larger letters could be used to easily identify the home state of the fallen. From there, a shorter alphabetical list of names would be presented below. To assist with speedy identification, the Secretary recommended that the individual names be large enough to easily read from a distance of perhaps twenty feet. Finally the Secretary also believed that the positioning of the list for viewing, however it may be designed, should face southward. To do so would allow the names to be visible more often during the colder months, as they would not be hidden in shadow from the melting power of the low winter sun.

In conclusion to the topic of the memorials, the Secretary asked Jordan Harwell if he would put forth a Presidential mandate. Such a mandate would require whichever individual person or company to be contracted for the work to adhere to the strictest of timelines. The completion and delivery of each memorial to their respective places of honor must be accomplished, without fail or excuse, by no later than Friday May twenty-eighth. The Secretary felt strongly that a ceremonious public unveiling should occur the following Monday morning, as the Memorial Day holiday for 2027 would be recognized on the thirty-first of May.

Feeling at least partially responsible for the oversight of having never looked into a memorial, and realizing that in spite of his other duties the Secretary had put some serious thought into the matter, the President nodded in agreement. Then he stated, “That is an excellent suggestion Mr. Secretary. Consider the mandate to be so ordered. Now please proceed with your plan, and inform the appropriate search committees that I fully endorse and expect such an unveiling on Monday the thirty-first of May.”

“Thank you Mr. President. When we are finished here sir, I shall contact my staff and instruct them to begin a search for suitable individuals or companies to do the work. I’m confident that when informed of the project, several will be anxious to work with the respective academies so that the task can be completed on time.”

“That’s excellent Mr. Secretary, and thank you.”

Then feeling that at the time he had captured the sympathetic ear of President Harwell, the Secretary turned to other thoughts. He had some ideas as to how the commencement exercises earlier in May could be conducted, and it appeared to be a good time to discuss them with the President. As fitting tributes for those young men and women who would have graduated just a few weeks prior to the memorial unveiling, the Secretary expressed a desire to have empty chairs with name placards upon them located within the seating area of their brethren. Then during the commencement exercises, the names of the fallen would be read aloud along with their classmates in the alphabetical order to which they would have received their diploma and commission. In addition, those same tributes should also occur during the commencement proceedings for the following three years. It was believed by the Secretary of Defense that even those who had been within the course of their plebe year when they were killed by the terrorist attacks should be equally honored.

Toward the conclusion of his conversation with the Secretary, President Harwell asked if the problems at the academies which had surfaced in early January had been brought under control. He learned that the recent concerns of harassment toward cadets or midshipmen from Texas at each of the three military academies had thankfully been minimized. However there were still a few scattered instances of physical violence. Those reports had come to the Secretary directly from the commandants at each academy, and they had included assurances that those responsible for the violence were severely and properly disciplined for such acts. Sadly for a few individuals the ramifications of their actions would potentially have consequences which could follow them for their entire life, as there had been the need to expel three cadets from West Point.