It’s estimated that forty to fifty million people died as a result of World War II. When faced with numbers at such a massive scale, it becomes hard to envision these deaths in anything but an abstract. How can we see each of the ones that compose the number fifty million?

The 1988 Causland Park memorial wall features twenty two of these deaths, all servicemen from Anacortes. Some were children as young as eighteen years old, others had children whose lives were forever changed by their passing. Some were eager to serve their country, while others didn’t have a choice. All had lives they left behind and futures that can no longer be imagined. 

A name on a wall only tells so much though, and so the Museum has begun creating biographies on each of those who were lost. The goal is to paint a picture of who these people were, beyond just their deaths. To put a face to the names and a life to the loss.

And as we leave here today, may each one of us say ‘“No more, no more, no more!”

-Mayor Jim Rice 1988 Wall Dedication Speech