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The Lone Sailor Statue, the symbol of the Navy Memorial in Washington, D.C., is designed to represent all sailors.

But over the years, the memorial has also developed a line of statues that represent more specific parts of the Navy. There are both male and female chief petty officers and midshipmen, and even a World War II WAVE.

The family’s latest addition is a junior enlisted female sailor titled “The Female Sailor.” Unlike the larger-than-life Lone Sailor, the female version will be produced only as an eight-inch statue — like the rest of the memorial’s collection.

The statue was developed over a decade-and-a-half by James Nemer, a retired Navy commander.

“Over the years, other statues emerged in the memorial’s collection, but what was missing was a junior enlisted female,” Nemer said, who retired in 1985 and now works as a sculptor in Charlottesville, Va. He approached the Navy Memorial with his idea and got the nod to start.

“I had two enlisted female sailors model for this statue over the years,” Nemer said. “Now that the statue is complete, the Navy is trying to help me locate these women so I can present them a statue.”

The original design had a woman using a boatswain’s pipe, but he scrapped the idea and instead produced the saluting female sailor.

“This new eight-inch miniature serves as a symbolic reminder of the contributions women have made and are making to our Navy,” said retired Rear Adm. Rick Buchanan, president and CEO of The United States Navy Memorial Foundation in Washington.

Nemer doesn’t plan to stop with this statue and hopes to produce more tributes, possibly male and female officer statues, which are still missing from the collection.

— Mark Faram