Jacksonville in Duval County, Florida — The American South (South Atlantic)

National POW/MIA Memorial & Museum

Photographed by Brandon D Cross, October 12, 2025

1. National POW/MIA Memorial & Museum Marker

Inscription.
The National POW/MIA Memorial and Museum complex focuses on the human experience primarily from the family, friends and follow service members perspective. While there are specific references to the POW and those MIA, the complex is as much of a memorial to those that visit the complex as it is to those who served and are lost. It is a memorial to the range of emotions felt and the dichotomy often associated with loss and celebration.

The primary organization of the memorial is along two axes. Each axis articulates direction and a distinct line. In terms of direction, each axis defines a series of experiences and orientation of elements that are encountered throughout the memorial. The emotive axis is central to the complex and extends generally east/west and the mission axis generally points north/south to the central rotunda of the U.S. Capitol.

The Emotive Axis
The emotive axis is the line where visitors initially engage the memorial. Designed to evoke a visceral and moving response through architecture, light, materials and landscape, the entrance of the POW/MIA Memorial and Museum is a simple, unimbellished

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shed, vast enclosed great hall. As visitors approach the building they are lured toward the Entry Hall by a vertical shaft of light.

The entry portal to the museum building is a simple unadomed black metal cube and is the only formally recognizable object located in the space. This great hall is terminated by a large vertical wall with a small slit allowing light to pass into the space, providing a glimpse into the garden beyond. The jacoposition of darkness and light, hope and despair and accommodation and color is the theme throughout the entre complex. Entering the museum through the black cube is a transformative experience, yielding to an interior space bathed in light, color and views to the landscape and gardens beyond.

The Mission Axis
The north/south orientation of the complex is aligned with a line pointing to U.S. Capitol. Its elements are selectively. grounded in an emotional basis. The orientation is concerned primarily with direction, position and connection of space.

Over 80,000 Projections Beneath an earthen landscape lies a 250 foot long hall that is bifurcated to create a linear space that is both light and

Photographed by Brandon D Cross, October 12, 2025

2. National POW/MIA Memorial & Museum Marker

dark. The dark hall (MIA Hall) is an interior thread comprised of a large glass media wall extending the full length with more than 80,000 names of MIA service members from World War Il to the present on a glass screen. The names are interactive and movable and are envisioned to be in slight motion. Visitors will be electronically linked to anyone they wish to be connected with on the display. The linked service member will electronically follow the visitor through the hall.

Projecting the names of MIA service members behind glass is revenant. Just as a projected name is intangible, so are the missing. As MIA personnel come home their names will be etched in a gallery of flight, opposite the MIA Hall. The alignment of MIA Hall is parallel to the Mission Axis.

A Sanctuary for Remembrance
The centerpiece of the POW/MIA memorial is the monument located in the gardens to the west. A large grove of native trees is interlaced with garden elements arrayed along the Mission and Emotive Axes. From the lens of the POW/MIA Museum, more than 80,000 vertical elements appear to support a massive earthen structure that is peeled back from

Naval Air Base Cecil Field image. Click for full size.

Photographed by Brandon D Cross, October 12, 2025

3. Naval Air Base Cecil Field

Master Jet Base

its natural position, symbolically carrying the plight of the earth. The elements, one for every service member missing, are extensive and act as a filter obscuring the visibility of visitors outside from patrons in the museum, asking the question: "What do we see of ourselves if we don't consider those that have sacrificed?" As those that have served come home, each supports is partially removed, leaving only a remnant. Their continued burden, blurring of vision and being one of the many missing is lifted.

While the burden the MIA service members carried is unquestioned, and considering a true hero's sacrifice is at the core of what America is, the true reality is that as long as there is evil and treachery in the world, as long as there are those willing to stand-up for this great country and as long as there are Americans that carry the values of this nation- the need for those that sacrifice will carry on. However, for the MIA, POW and their families and friends, a safe and prosperous homeland was never intended to be the burden of one or many forever. As viewed through the lens of sanctuary it is said that these more than 80,000

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brave men and women had the strength to carry the world, they might disagree saying it was this great nation that carried them.

(Site Map)
A. Entry Hall • B. MIA Hall • C. Gallery of Light • D. Sanctuary Remembrance • E. Event Lawn • F. POW/MIA Museum • G. Exit Gardens • H. Cecil Field POW/MIA Complex •I. Cecil Field POW/MIA Arrival Plaza • J. Cecil Field Aviator Plaza

Erected by National POW/MIA Memorial & Museum.

Topics. This memorial is listed in this topic list: Military.

Location. 30° 13.809′ N, 81° 53.438′ W. Memorial is in Jacksonville, Florida, in Duval County. It can be reached from POW-MIA Memorial Parkway south of Lake Newman Street, on the right when traveling south. Touch for map. Memorial is at or near this postal address: 6112 POW-MIA Memorial Parkway, Jacksonville FL 32221, United States of America. Touch for directions.

Regionally, this memorial is in Florida’s First Coast.

It is also in the American South

and on the Eastern Seaboard. Globally, it is in the North Atlantic Region,

North America,

a Gulf of Mexico state,

the Western Hemisphere,

the Western World,

and the Anglosphere.

Historically, it finds itself in what was once New Spain,

the territory of the Mississippian Culture,

one of the Confederate States of America,

and the Antebellum South.

Other nearby markers. At least 8 other markers are within walking distance of this marker: VS-27 (here, next to this marker); Naval Aircrewman (AWs) Monument (a few steps from this marker); LCDR Phil Craig (within shouting distance of this marker); CDR Peter Schoeffel (within shouting distance of this marker); LCDR Denver Key (within shouting distance of this marker); LCDR John Davis (within shouting distance of this marker); Hero's Walk & Freedom Trees (within shouting distance of this marker); LCDR Michael Hoff (within shouting distance of this marker). Touch for a list and map of all markers in Jacksonville.

Also see . . .
1. NAS Cecil Field. (Submitted on October 17, 2025, by Brandon D Cross of Flagler Beach, Florida.)
2. POW MiA. (Submitted on October 17, 2025.)
3. POW/ MIA Throughout U.S. History. (Submitted on October 17, 2025, by Brandon D Cross of Flagler Beach, Florida.)

Credits. This page was last revised on October 18, 2025. It was originally submitted on October 17, 2025, by Brandon D Cross of Flagler Beach, Florida. This page has been viewed 69 times since then and 33 times this year. Photos: 1, 2, 3. submitted on October 17, 2025, by Brandon D Cross of Flagler Beach, Florida. • Bernard Fisher was the editor who published this page.