History Of Entering The Vietnam Memorial

The Memorial is a wide V-shaped wall that lies in Constitution Gardens.

The wall is made of black granite that seems to rise from the earth and recede into it.

Entering the Memorial is a moving experience: the wall is inscribed with over 58,000 names,

each referring to an American man or woman who was lost in Vietnam.

The enormity of the nation’s loss becomes clear from seeing line after line of American names

that stretches for 250 feet in two directions.

The average age for a soldier being killed in Vietnam was nineteen; the casualty for these

marines were 24%.

The wall is a place of quiet commemoration, people come to acknowledge sacrifice, remember a

young face, and express private grief here.

The wall would not exist if