Designers for the war memorial were selected in a competition. The architects maintained a small regional practice in Staunton, Virginia, in the Shenandoah Valley. This limestone openair pavilion on a commanding bluff overlooking the river honors Virginians who died during World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the Persian Gulf War. Especially moving is the sweeping glass wall, on which are etched the names of those killed in the wars. It anticipates by more than thirty years a similar design solution at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. At one end of the structure, a soaring statue of a grieving female figure looms above an eternal flame.