Vietnam Veterans Memorial

''We Will Never Forget''

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial

The Wall stands as a symbol of America's honor and recognition of the men and women who served and sacrificed their lives in the Vietnam War

Construction at the site was completed in late October 1982, and the Memorial was dedicated on November 13, 1982.

Inscribed on the black granite walls are the names of more than 58,000 men and women who gave their lives or remain missing.

The design of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial was the work of Maya Ying Lin of Athens, Ohio, at that time a 21-year-old senior at Yale University. In August of 1981, the Memorial Fund selected a building company and architecture firm to develop the plans and build Lin's design. Lin became a design consultant to the architect of record.

The names are inscribed in the chronological order of their dates of casualty, showing the war as a series of individual human sacrifices and giving each name a special place in history.

Maya Lin conceived her design as creating a park within a park — a quiet protected place unto itself, yet harmonious with the overall plan of Constitution Gardens. To achieve this effect she chose polished black granite for the walls. Its mirror-like surface reflects the images of the surrounding trees, lawns, and monuments.

The memorial's walls point to the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial, thus bringing the memorial into the historical context of our country.

Diesel and Restless at the "Wall" 5-30-1993

"They were with him when he died" - "It was like I was 12 again and I imagined that my Dad had come home and was telling me stories about Vietnam" Joan Cox speaking about her Father CM1 Milford Marvin Tognazzini KIA 8/7/1969.

A member of the Black Creek Gourd Society of the Navajo Nation doing a prayer and honoring ceremony. The society has returned to the Wall each Memorial for 4 years to conduct a “Honoring Dance”.

Larry Anderson

Members of the Gourd Society.

“Left to right, members of the Black Creek Gourd Society of the Navajo Nation: Chuck Katon, Gary L. Thompson and Charlie Wishart. They all went back to Vietnam in 2006 through the support of the Veterans Vietnam Restoration Project or VVRP in order to take some of the ashes of a friend Joel Scotti to a school he helped to build with Chuck in 2001.

Chuck and Gary

“Gary Thompson as an adopted member of the Navajo Nation, is doing a pipe ceremony over his medicine bundle. “Gary took his pipe and medicine bundle back to Vietnam in 2006 in order to complete his healing journey which started at the Wall in 1992”.

HERO Bike left at The Wall

Boot at The Wall 5-24-1998