Iron Mike is the de facto name of various monuments commemorating servicemen of the United States military. The term “Iron Mike” is uniquely American slang used to refer to men who are especially tough, brave, and inspiring; it was originally a nautical term for a gyrocompass, used to keep a ship on an unwavering course. Because the use of the slang term was popular in the first half of the 20th century, many statues from that period acquired the Iron Mike nickname, and over the generations the artists’ titles were largely forgotten. Even official military publications and classroom texts tend to prefer the nickname to the original titles.
The background story here is that I had to travel to Fort Lewis Washington in 2007 for some Simulation work for my job and while I was there I was afforded the time to get out and take some photographs. These have been in the collection ever since and I just recently discovered they were not on the blog. Makes me wonder what else I’m going to find is missing from the website 🙂
The Infantryman (Iron Mike)
The Infantryman (Iron Mike)