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This person believes that their ancestor would want people to wade in the pool because they wouldn't want it to be such a sad place, they want people to be happy too.

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Wading in the World War II memorial is emphatically not allowed. Solemnity is the officially preferred emotion. But the memorial's buoyant design inherently invokes liveliness, and strict rules violate the spirit of the war against fascism.

Photo by BeyondDC on Flickr.

Every summer when Washington heats up, tourists find a respite from the heat at the World War II memorial. Thousands dip their feet in, and a few inevitably wade towards the middle.

Until a National Park Service ranger chastises them for disrespecting the memorial, and makes them return to dry land. Or until local media scolds them back to shore.

The rangers and media are well-intentioned, but treating the World War II memorial with a solemnity not reflected in the design does little to inspire respect.
The memorial doesn't have a solemn design
Truthfully, the World War II memorial doesn't function well as a somber space. Its lively fast-moving fountains and bright, sun-filled plaza bring it to life.

Kirk Savage puts it well in his book, Monument Wars: Washington, DC, the National Mall, and the Transformation of the Memorial Landscape:

The World War II Memorial is decidedly not a psychological space, not a space for reflection and reckoning. The roar of the fountains, and the inscriptions trumpet their messages of determination and rectitude...This is a space not for internal reckoning but for acclimation, pure and simple.

The central fountain doesn't inspire quiet reflection. It's an active, bustling space, full of people enjoying their day every bit as much as they contemplate America's role in World War II.

By intent or happenstance, the design inspires people to move about, to fill what would otherwise be stark emptiness with their activity.

Photo by brownpau on Flickr.

Years ago when I was in the Navy, my captain had a saying: "Every sign is a failure of leadership." For example, if you need a sign saying "no smoking," it's because you didn't properly train your sailors not to smoke in that space.

That axiom doesn't always hold outside the closed ecosystem of a ship, but I think it pertains here. If we need a sign saying "no wading," it's because the design has failed to discourage wading.

If you need several such signs, and rangers need to constantly enforce it, I'd say that far from discouraging wading, the memorial's design implicitly encourages it.
Contrast the WWII memorial with the one for Vietnam
Contrast it with the Vietnam Veterans memorial, where most visitors are naturally somber, and the effect of design becomes clear.

I'm a tour guide. When visiting the memorials with my student groups, I take a moment to warn them about appropriate behavior. But at the Vietnam memorial, my efforts are generally superfluous.

The memorial's very design imposes it's own mores. Few of my students know more than the most cursory details of the Vietnam War, but when they descend into the memorial, with its merciless rise of row after row of names, it makes an impression on even the most jaded eighth grader.

The space inspires a natural quiet reflection.

The World War II Memorial very much does not. Rather, it celebrates life. And that is OK.
Enforced solemnity violates the spirit of the war
To me, the natural enthusiasm and activity imbued within the World War II memorial evokes the spirit of relief and jubilation of the end of the war.

A hard fought war, to defeat what may have been the most concentrated evil political system ever to be seen on this planet, ended with tremendous sacrifice and loss, but with victory.

It is right that we honor the sacrifices of the World War II generation with the somber Freedom Wall, and its 4048 gold stars, each representing 100 Americans killed in the war. But just as that wall is only part of the memorial, so should that emotion be only part of our interaction with it.

No one scolded the people celebrating VJ Day in Times Square at the end of the war. We need not scold tourists today. There's room for unbridled enthusiasm, for joy, for relief at the end of deep pain, just as there is a place for solemnity.

I can't claim to speak for the myriad of reasons why millions of individual Americans fought this war. After all, I don't appreciate others characterizing my military service to suit their own ends. But ultimately World War II was about freedom, so let's celebrate that, in all the chaotic and uncontrollable ways it might manifest itself.

Tim Krepp is an author and tour guide, living and specializing in Washington, DC, but working throughout the east coast. A resident of the more fashionable east side of Capitol Hill, Tim has lived in Washington, DC since graduating from George Washington University a few decades ago.

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Wading in the World War II memorial is emphatically not allowed. Solemnity is the officially preferred emotion. But the memorial's buoyant design inherently invokes liveliness, and strict rules violate the spirit of the war against fascism. Photo by BeyondDC on Flickr.

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The NPS considers adding more signage with different wording and in other languages to keep people out of the wading pool.

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The National Park Service is eyeing the possibility of increasing or updating signage at the World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C., as rangers struggle to enforce a prohibition on wading in the memorial's fountain.

It's a perennial summer headache. The mercury climbs, and footsore tourists on the National Mall abandon decorum and jump into the shallow fountain at the World War II Memorial to cool down. Several signs are posted informing visitors that wading is off-limits out of respect for the memorial, but the hotter the day, the less these signs seem to matter.

A photograph obtained by Military.com in June shows dozens of visitors sitting on and along the lip of the fountain at the center of the memorial. Five children wade in the water, while several women film them on cell phones. A similar image was captured by The Washington Post on June 26.

A spokesman for the National Park Service, Mike Litterst, told Military.com he was well aware of the issue.

"It happens every summer when the weather gets warm," he said.

Litterst said the Park Service was considering making changes to make the no-wading policy more clear and eliminate the possibility of misunderstanding.

"We are looking at changing the signage at the memorial to help clarify the issue of wading in the fountain," he said. "While no final decisions have been made, we are considering things such as the wording on the signs, the number of signs placed around the memorial and their locations, and even adding some signs in languages other than English."

Litterst did not say when a decision might be made.

For now, the issue of wading appears to be a mild irritant for memorial visitors and a long-standing challenge for rangers.

When a reporter paid a visit to the memorial around noon on June 29, the temperature hovered in the low 80s and a few people sat near the fountain, though no one waded.

A National Park Service volunteer for the World War II Memorial, who asked that his name not be used, said he and other volunteers, who provide information and guest assistance, can inform visitors of the rules, but cannot enforce them. When school groups start visiting the memorial in the summer, it's almost impossible to keep everyone out of the water, he said.

"Tweens are the worst," he added.

Adryana Slagle, from Reston, Virginia, visited the memorial with her two small children and the children's grandfather, visiting from California. While the children closely observed some ducklings swimming in one of the memorial's water features, they stayed on the dry path.

"I can see how [wading] would be disrespectful," Slagle said. "I wouldn't personally do it."

Andrew Coughlin, a spokesman for the nonprofit organization Friends of the World War II Memorial, told Military.com that many veterans of the war and their families have made clear they don't like it when people wade in the fountain.

Coughlin, whose grandfather was an Army veteran of World War II, said he realizes that the National Park Service has limited resources to make sure the rules are followed.

"It is up to the people who visit the memorial to pay homage and respect and have the discretion to make sure they're not crossing the boundaries of the memorial," he said.

For some, lack of respect for the rules of the memorial is tantamount to disrespect for the veterans it was built to honor. Opened in 2004, the memorial is a frequent destination for Honor Flights -- groups of World War II veterans flown to Washington, D.C., from around the country as a gesture of gratitude.

"My dad and I were here on an Honor Flight and as he read the names of the battles, he was very quiet and you could see he was reliving some of those times," a commenter wrote on the Friends of the World War II Memorial Facebook page. "This memorial was built for them. It was not built for your entertainment. Be respectful. Show some restraint."

It may be hard to communicate that message to all passersby on a hot summer day, though.

"It's an interesting dilemma," Coughlin said. "We want to pay tribute to the veterans, but it's also a tourist attraction."

-- Hope Hodge Seck can be reached at hope.seck@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at@HopeSeck.

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The National Park Service is eyeing the possibility of increasing or updating signage at the World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C., as rangers struggle to enforce a prohibition on wading in the memorial's fountain. It's a perennial summer headache.

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Visual Form

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Signs around the fountain state that wading and tossing coins is not allowed. Many still let their kids play in the fountain and they put their feet in during a hot day. One says that the ability to wade "pulls people in." While other say that this monument is not a pool for people to dip the feet in.

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Some believed that the design was inappropriate for the space between the the Washington and Lincoln memorials. They believe: it is too complex for the national mall, disrupts the openness with its pillars, the lighting will alter the dawn and dusk look.