GARNERVILLE – A years-long plan to honor those who served in the quick and oft-forgot 1991 Operation Desert Storm peaks this fall when a memorial on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., will be dedicated as part of USA 250 celebrations.
Much of the project’s artistry and planning is taking place in a small studio at Garner Arts Center in Rockland County, New York. That’s where Emily Bedard, one of the artists involved in the project, has created models of the panels that make up the main display of the memorial.
Bedard ensures the work animates the vision of the veterans behind its fruition, and meets the stringent specs mandated by the federal process that kicks in for a monument placed on the National Mall.
“We’re not trying to celebrate war by any means,” Bedard said during a recent visit to her main studio. Those who served, and the historic significance of this short but decisive coalition action, she said, should be honored and remembered.
The Desert Shield and Desert Storm Memorial has been independently funded by the nonprofit National Desert Storm Memorial Association. Its Board of Directors is comprised of veterans who served during Operation Desert Storm, including Scott Stump. A U.S. Marine Corps Reserve veteran, Stump was on active duty in eastern Saudi Arabia and Bahrain during Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm.
Decisive, but also deadly
Desert Storm, sometimes called the Gulf War, brought “so many firsts” for the U.S. military, Stump said. It the first “hot” conflict after the Cold War.
“It was also the first all-volunteer force that deployed,” Stump said. That fact, and the overwhelming success, boosted troops in many Americans’ minds, Stump said. He recalled how in the wake of Desert Storm, veterans were greeted with “thank you for your service,” rather than the derision that had met Vietnam veterans when the returned home.
The war also influenced future American action in the region, bringing lessons in coalition-building and surge techniques; it also fostered an illusion of ease to victory. And, it locked in the antagonistic relationship between the U.S. and Saddam Hussein.
As decisive as it was, the war was still deadly; the U.S. reported 148 combat dead, 145 non-battle deaths, 21 prisoners of war and 467 wounded in action among the more than 700,000 service members that were in theater.
Creating a memorial to a near-forgotten war
Bedard operates out of two studios at Garner Arts.
Her main space contains a one-third scale of the Desert Shield Desert Storm Memorial, set up in two sections. Another studio holds a single full-size panel that can be used for reference.
Bedard, an award-winning sculptor, has created and overseen the panels.
The panels increase in size, to 7 feet high, as troops are shown engaging in a ground war.
The panels recede in size to echo the denouement of the war. The declaration of peace is shown with two birds: a falcon, Kuwait’s national bird, and an American bald eagle, created in stainless steel by artist Robert Eccleston.
“The liberation panel,” Bedard said as she gestured toward the final piece, “shows the dawn of a new day.”
The memorial must fit specifications set by the U.S. Commission on Fine Arts and the National Parks Service, which review the project throughout its development.
The federal panels’ feedback has been practical as well as artistic. For example, Bedard said, the Parks Service mandated wear-resistant granite. The Fine Arts panel paid close attention to details, giving Bedard feedback like creating less definition near the bottom of soldiers’ boots to evoke the sand dunes that troops traversed, “to maintain the atmosphere of being in the desert.”
Stump pointed out Bedard’s flexibility, something he said challenges many artists, as the memorial needed to meet stringent federal guidelines and incorporate feedback from layers of government boards.
Bedard, who is on leave as director of sculpture for Foster Reeve & Associates, said she is used to collaborating with architects, engineers and clients on large-scale interior design; she won’t name drop but she’s worked on projects for people like Yoko Ono and Oprah.
Bedard keeps keyed into every detail. And every detail counts. The whitish with speckled gray granite that’s been chosen, she said, changes tone in different light and becomes a yellowish hue when wet. That shift, Bedard said, evokes the large and shifting dunes of the region.
Bedard’s attention to detail included tracking down military uniforms, either from eBay or veterans of the conflict. She said veterans helped with models so they knew how to carry equipment, how to walk through the landscape.
Embracing ancient and modern techniques
Bas-relief or low relief, sculpture has been used for millennia. Here, it helps the story of the what’s sometimes called the 100-hour war unfold, from the buildup of warships, then air defense, in the region.
Bedard has been involved in every step, from sculpting the clay to make bas-relief model panels, to the scaling up the panels using robotic technology, to overseeing the final work for the granite panels in Carrara, Italy.
Bedard honors the ancient art of bas-relief and also embraces modern techniques.
“We use robots,” she explained of the translation from one-third scale clay model to final granite sculpture.
A Computer Numerical Control or CNC machine (“like a 3D printer in reverse”) scans her work to create the template out of foam. The CNC model is used to then carve the stone in Italy.
Then Bedard teams up with expert carvers there to refine the works. Bedard, armed with pencil and vision, shows the expert carvers where to make any alterations. “We’re refining on a very micro level,” she said, like adding detail to faces, refinements to gun mechanisms, detailing laces on combat boots.
“The machine is not doing any of the artistic work, ” Bedard said of the technique that is commonly used in sculpture now.
Bedard moved her studio to Garnerville after searching for a space in NYC but not finding anything to meet the needs of a project of this scale. Soon after, she moved to the same tiny hamlet in the Town of Haverstraw, trading in a longtime, two-ferry commute from Staten Island to a Brooklyn studio to a jaunt down the road.
Bedard, who is 38, hardly remembers Desert Storm — she was just a little kid. But her elementary school friend’s dad was in the U.S. Air Force and a Desert Storm vet and she heard stories of his service. And later, she considered enlisting with dreams of becoming a fighter pilot.
Bedard ultimately figured that her talents lie in the arts.
Joining the Desert Shield Desert Storm Memorial effort, she said, is a way “I can use my work as a sculptor in service to the country.”
Timeline of war with Saddam Hussein
The brief 1991 war that became known as Desert Storm was the first time many Americans heard of a dictator called Saddam Hussein and Iraq.
Saddled with debt from the Iran-Iraq War from 1980 to 1988, Saddam Hussein put pressure on Kuwait and other Gulf neighbors over repayments of loans and territorial disputes.
On Aug. 2, 1990, 100,000 Iraqi troops invaded Kuwait, taking control in just hours.
The UN Security Council quickly condemned the invasion and embargoes and sanctions on Iraq ensued.
On Aug. 7, Operation Desert Shield began and U.S. troops, leading a wide-ranging coalition of nations, begin deploying to Saudi Arabia.
Then on Jan. 16, 1991, Operation Desert Storm launched, with U.S. troops in a ground war by Feb. 24.
By Feb. 26, U.S. troops reached Kuwait City and Iraqi troops were in retreat.
On Feb. 27, 1991, the Kuwaiti flag flew again over Kuwait City and President George H.W. Bush halted offensive combat and laid out cease-fire conditions.
Stump said that the strategy of the war shouldn’t be overlooked.
“It’s sometimes called a 100-hour war; it was not,” he said, pointing out a 43-day aerial bombardment that allowed the quick and successful ground campaign. The original predictions of 30,000 deaths did not materialize, he said, thanks to those strategies that weakened Iraq early.
When memorial opens; how to help
Building a national memorial is not for the faint of heart, Stump said.
“It’s been a journey,” he said, recalling how he recognized the need and initiated the effort in 2010, as the 20th anniversary of the conflict approached.
But after clearing a “gauntlet” of restrictions and fundraising all the necessary funds — “we haven’t received any taxpayer funding,” Stump said — the unveiling of the memorial approaches.
Stump and Bedard have lauded the location on the National Mall that the memorial was granted. Occupying the southwest corner of Constitution Avenue and 23rd Street Northwest, Stump said, allows a view of the Lincoln Memorial. That, of course, meant some design restrictions, including height caps.
“We had to make some concessions,” Stump said, but added he is more than satisfied with the result.
“Truly we have created a space in and of itself essentially out of nothing,” Stump said. “I think the visitor will feel that sense of enclosure … a symbolic desert environment and conditions where this conflict unfolded. It’s essentially an oasis.”
Bedard, who’s been going to D.C. to oversee installation, looks forward to the ceremony and seeing the reaction of those who served in Desert Storm. “It’s nice to honor veterans in their lifetime.”
The public is invited to the opening of the Desert Shield Desert Storm Memorial, Stump said. “We hope that there is a robust response and a lot of people will attend.”
When: 11 a.m. Saturday Oct. 24, 2026. The ceremony is open to the public.
Where: Southwest corner of Constitution Avenue and 23rd Street Northwest, Washington, D.C.
How to help: Although the land is provided by the government, no tax dollars or government money was used for construction. The memorial was estimated to cost $40 million and according to 2024 tax reports, that goal had been met.
“We are still fundraising. We still have a lot of things we have to pay for,” Stump said, including unexpected expenses that arise. “I don’t care if you’re remodeling your bathroom or creating a memorial on the National Mall, you never know the cost.”
Find out about giving at ndswm.org/donate/.
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: New Desert Storm memorial taking shape in Garnerville artist’s studio
Reporting by Nancy Cutler, Rockland/Westchester Journal News / Rockland/Westchester Journal News
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