R. Bratti Associates Named General Contractor for The Old Guard Monument

Col. James Laufenburg, US Army (Ret), Executive Director of The Old Guard Monument Foundation and a former Old Guard Regimental Commander, announced today that R. Bratti Associates of Alexandria, VA has been selected to install a monument honoring The Old Guard on the grounds of Fort Myer in Arlington, VA. The nine-foot high bronze sculpture is ready for casting at the Crucible LLC foundry in Norman, OK. It is planned to be dedicated in September of 2010.

The Bratti firm is a forth generation company of stone and marble cutters with a storied résumé of work on renowned sites in the Washington, DC area, including the Tomb of the Unknowns in Arlington National Cemetery, a location perpetually guarded by Old Guard sentries. In a statement issued by the firm, its President, Michael Bratti, stated, “it is an honor to be part of a project bringing recognition to the nation’s oldest active infantry regiment, one that has served its nation since 1784.”

Bratti’s responsibility will be to build the sculpture’s pedestal and surrounding  plaza with its pathways, pavilions and benches and put the finished bronze in its place. The site plan is designed by Alex Zaras of the Washington firm of Zaras and Neudorfer Architects, working under contract to the Bratti firm. The plaza is to be situated on a spot adjacent to the Summerall Parade Ground and next door to the future home of The Old Guard Museum. “We want it to be a striking setting,” he told the Bratti team, “one that will instill pride in the men and women who have and will bear the colors of The Old Guard.” Approximately $2 Million will be needed to complete the installation. 

Sculpted by artist B.J. Mungenast of St. Louis, MO, the monument portrays three larger than life figures, each symbolizing one aspect of the triple responsibility of The Old Guard. The unit performs ceremonial duties in the Washington DC area and stands ready to deploy for security missions in the national capital area -- as it did in the smoke and wreckage of the Pentagon on September 11, 2001 when it undertook the grisly task of guarding the site and removing the remains of some of the victims of the terrorist attack. Laufenburg said that he was “overwhelmed with emotion,” when he visited the artist as she was putting the final touches on the full size model of the sculpture.

Pictures of the sculpture and additional information about the Old Guard Monument Foundation may be found at www.theoldguardmonument.org.