The new Vietnam War Memorial features mosaic concrete Battle Maps created by The Armbruster Company using historic methods. The Vietnam War Memorial is located at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, a National Historic Landmark at the Punchbowl in Honolulu, Hawaii.
The artistic technique, colors, style and materials of the new Battle Maps had to match the historic Battle Maps of the Second World War and the Korean War Memorials. The mosaic artwork is created by crushing hundreds of colors of glass into 1/8" pebbles and fine sand. These are combined with white cement and pigments to create miniature concrete that is placed into intricate molds in a 12 hour casting process. The next day, when the concrete hardens, tiny wire brushes are used to expose the glass in the surface of the mosaic concrete panel.
To meet the goal of a Veterans Day dedication, our new Battle Maps had to be produced twice as fast as Earley Studio had made the original panels. We used digital tools and CNC equipment to speed up the design, artwork and mold fabrication. We created fifty-six replicas of military unit patches in porcelain. To match the historic fonts we machined 5,000 acrylic letters.
The American Battle Monuments Commission selected The Armbruster Company to design and build the new Vietnam Battle Maps. Mary Morse Jacobs, the artist for the historic Battle Maps, served as the consulting artist.
