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Vietnam Wall
 The Memorial Wall,
designed by Maya Lin, is made up of two
gabbro walls 246 feet 9 inches (75 m) long The walls are
sunk into the ground, with the earth behind them. At the highest
tip (the apex where they meet), they are 10.1 feet (3 m) high,
and they taper to a height of eight inches (20 cm) at their
extremities. Stone for the wall came from Bangalore, Karnataka,
India, and was deliberately chosen because of its reflective
quality. The Lincoln memorial can be seen in the distance. Stone
cutting and fabrication was done in Barre, Vermont. Stones were
then shipped to Memphis, Tennessee where the names were etched.
The etching was completed using a
photoemulsion and
sandblasting process. The negatives used in the process are
in storage at the Smithsonian Institution. When a visitor looks
upon the wall, his or her reflection can be seen simultaneously
with the engraved names, which is meant to symbolically bring
the past and present together. One wall points toward the
Washington Monument, the other in the direction of the Lincoln
Memorial, meeting at an angle of 125° 12′. Each wall has 72
panels, 70 listing names (numbered 1E through 70E and 70W
through 1W) and 2 very small blank panels at the extremities.
There is a pathway along the base of the Wall, where visitors
may walk, read the names, make a
pencil rubbing of a particular name, or pray.
Inscribed on the walls
with the Optima typeface are the names of servicemen who were
either confirmed to be KIA (Killed in Action) or remained
classified as MIA (Missing in Action) when the walls were
constructed in 1982. They are listed in chronological order,
starting at the apex on panel 1E in 1959 (although it was later
discovered that the first casualties were military advisers who
were killed by artillery fire in 1957), moving day by day to the
end of the eastern wall at panel 70E, which ends on May 25,
1968, starting again at panel 70W at the end of the western wall
which completes the list for May 25, 1968, and returning to the
apex at panel 1W in 1975. Symbolically, this is described as a
"wound that is closed and healing." Information about rank,
unit, and decorations are not given. The wall listed 58,191
names when it was completed in 1993; as of June 2010, there are
58,267 names, including 8 women. Approximately 1,200 of these
are listed as missing (MIAs, POWs, and others), denoted with a
cross; the confirmed dead are marked with a diamond. If the
missing return alive, the cross is circumscribed by a circle
(although this has never occurred as of March 2009; if their
death is confirmed, a diamond is superimposed over the cross.
According to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, "there is no
definitive answer to exactly how many, but there could be as
many as 38 names of personnel who survived, but through clerical
errors, were added to the list of fatalities provided by the
Department of Defense." Directories are located on nearby
podiums so that visitors may locate specific names.
Beginning and ending timeline for those listed on the wall
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November 1, 1955 –
Dwight D. Eisenhower deploys Military Assistance Advisory
Group to train the South Vietnamese military units and
secret police. However, the U.S. Department of Defense does
not recognize such date since the men were supposedly only
training the Vietnamese. The officially recognized date is
the formation of the Military Assistance Command Viet-Nam,
better known as MACV. This marks the official beginning of
American involvement in the war as recognized by the
memorial.
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June 8, 1956 – The
first official death in Vietnam is U.S. Air Force Technical
Sergeant Richard B. Fitzgibbon, Jr. of Stoneham, MA who was
killed by another U.S. airman.
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July 8, 1959 – Charles
Ovnand and Dale R. Buis are killed by guerrillas at
Bien Hoa while watching the film The Tattered Dress.
They are listed 1 and 2 at the wall's dedication. Ovnand's
name is spelled on the memorial as "Ovnard," due to
conflicting military records of his surname.
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April 30, 1975 – Fall
of Saigon. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs uses May
7, 1975 as the official end date for the Vietnam era as
defined by Title 38 U.S. Code Section 101.
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May 15, 1975 – 18
Marines are killed on the last day of a rescue operation
known as the Mayagüez incident with troops from the Khmer
Rouge in Cambodia. They are the last servicemen listed on
the timeline
The Vietnam Veterans Memorial is a national memorial
in Washington, D.C. It honors U.S. service members of the U.S. armed
forces who fought in the Vietnam War, service members who died in
service in Vietnam/South East Asia, and those service members who were
unaccounted for (Missing In Action) during the War.
The unconventionality of the selected design
was very controversial, especially among veterans. Many publicly
voiced their displeasure, calling the wall "a black gash of
shame." Two prominent early supporters of the project, H. Ross
Perot and James Webb, withdrew their support once they saw the
design. Said Webb, “I never in my wildest dreams imagined such a
nihilistic slab of stone.” James Watt, Secretary of the Interior
under President Ronald Reagan, initially refused to issue a
building permit for the memorial due to the public outcry about
the design.
Once the design was
realized, the overwhelming majority of the design's critics came
to appreciate the simple beauty and emotional power of the wall,
and such controversy quickly evaporated. In the words of
Scruggs, "It has become something of a shrine.
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Interesting Stats and Update
There are
58,267 names now listed on that polished black wall, including
those added in 2010.
The names are arranged in
the order in which they were taken from us by date and within each date
the names are alphabetized. It is hard to believe it is 36 years since
the last casualties.
Beginning at the apex on
panel 1E and going out to the end of the East wall, appearing to recede
into the earth (numbered 70E - May 25, 1968), then resuming at the end
of the West wall, as the wall emerges from the earth (numbered
70W - continuing May 25, 1968) and ending with a date in 1975. Thus the
war's beginning and end meet. The war is complete, coming full circle,
yet broken by the earth that bounds the angle's open side and contained
within the earth itself.
There are 58,267 names now
listed on that polished black wall, including those added in 2010. The
names are arranged in the order in which they were taken from us by
date and within each date the names are alphabetized. It is hard to
believe it is 36 years since the last casualties.
Beginning at the apex on
panel 1E and going out to the end of the East wall , appearing to recede
into the earth (numbered 70E - May 25, 1968), then resuming at the end
of the West wall, as the wall emerges from the earth (numbered 70W -
continuing May 25, 1968) and ending with a date in 1975. Thus the war's
beginning and end meet. The war is complete, coming full circle, yet
broken by the earth that bounds the angle's open side and contained
within the earth itself.
The first known casualty
was Richard B. Fitzgibbon, of North Weymouth, Mass. Listed by the U.S.
Department of Defense as having been killed on June 8, 1956. His name
is listed on the Wall with that of his son, Marine Corps Lance Cpl.
Richard B. Fitzgibbon III, who was killed on Sept. 7, 1965.
There are three sets of fathers and sons on
the Wall.
39,996 on the Wall were just 22 or younger.
8,283 were just 19 years old.
The largest age group, 33,103 were 18 years
old.
12 soldiers on the Wall were 17 years old.
5 soldiers on the Wall were 16 years old.
One soldier, PFC Dan Bullock was 15 years
old.
997 soldiers were killed on their first day
in Vietnam.
1,448 soldiers were killed on their last day
in Vietnam.
31 sets of brothers are on the Wall.
Thirty one sets of parents lost two of their
sons.
54 soldiers once attended Thomas Edison High
School in Philadelphia. Why so many from one school?
8 Women are on the Wall ~ Nursing the
wounded.
244 soldiers were awarded the Medal of Honor
during the Vietnam War; 153 of them are on the Wall.
Beallsville, Ohio, with a population of 475,
lost 6 of her sons.
West Virginia had the
highest casualty rate per capita in the nation. There are 711 West
Virginians on the Wall.
The Marines of Morenci:
They led some of the scrappiest high school football and basketball
teams that the little Arizona copper town of Morenci (pop. 5,058) had
ever known and cheered. They enjoyed roaring beer busts. In quieter
moments, they rode horses along the Coronado Trail, stalked deer in the
Apache National Forest. And in the patriotic camaraderie typical of
Morenci's mining families, the nine graduates of Morenci High enlisted
as a group in the Marine Corps. Their service began on Independence
Day, 1966. Only 3 returned home.
The Buddies of Midvale:
LeRoy Tafoya, Jimmy Martinez, Tom Gonzales were all boyhood friends and
lived on three consecutive streets in Midvale, Utah on Fifth, Sixth and
Seventh avenues. They lived only a few yards apart. They played ball
at the adjacent sandlot ball field. And they all went to Vietnam. In a
span of 16 dark days in late 1967, all three would be killed. LeRoy was
killed on Wednesday, Nov. 22, the fourth anniversary of John F.
Kennedy's assassination. Jimmy died less than 24 hours later on
Thanksgiving Day. Tom was shot dead assaulting the enemy on Dec. 7,
Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day.
The most casualty deaths
for a single day was on January 31, 1968 ~ 245 deaths.
The most casualty deaths
for a single month was May 1968 - 2,415 casualties were incurred.
Most
Americans who read this will only see the numbers that the Vietnam
War created. To those of us who survived the war, and to the families
of those who did not, we see the faces, we feel the pain that these
numbers created. We are, until we too pass away, haunted with these
numbers, because they were our friends, fathers, husbands, wives, sons
and daughters. There are no noble wars, just noble warriors. |
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The Three Soldiers
This well-known sculpture by U.S. artist and sculptor
Frederick Hart portrays three young U.S. fighting men, completely
dressed and outfitted in uniforms and equipment used by U.S. infantrymen
in the Vietnam War. While the military attire is meant to be symbolic
and general in nature, the personal combat equipment displayed is
actually quite specific in representing the figures as serving in either
the U.S. Army, or U.S. Marine Corps.
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Of the three fighting
men, the lead figure (in the middle) represents a Marine, as
he wears a Type M-1955 body armor vest, which was worn
exclusively by Marines in Vietnam. He is armed only with a
Colt M1911A1 .45 caliber automatic pistol, which is carried
in a Government Issue (GI) leather holster, on the right
hip. The holster is attached to an M-1956 GI pistol belt,
and a small GI pistol magazine pouch is carried on the
belt's left front. The M-1911A1 .45 caliber pistol was used
by Marine enlisted, NCO, and officer ranks, so its depiction
is consistent with a Marine of any rank. The Marine wears no
shirt, and his body armor vest serves as his only upper-body
clothing. His other attire consists of tropical combat
trousers and tropical ("jungle") combat boots; he wears no
headgear. Like his comrades, he carries a GI 1-quart canteen
retained in its cover, with two attached to his pistol belt,
and situated at the right rear hip. |
The statue, unveiled on Veterans Day,
1984, was designed by Frederick Hart, who placed third in
the original memorial design competition.
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The man on the right displays
combat equipment consistent with a U.S. Army Soldier, chiefly a Type M69
body armor vest, which was the primary armor vest used mainly by U.S.
Army personnel in Vietnam, from about 1967 on. He also has a GI towel
draped over his neck and shoulders, which served to absorb sweat and
cushioned heavy loads, a common practice of many Soldiers in Vietnam. In
his left hand he carries an M16A1 rifle, the main battle rifle for both
Soldiers and Marines, from about 1966 on. His uniform consists of the
tropical combat uniform (jacket and trousers) and jungle boots. In his
right hand, he holds an M1 steel helmet with a camouflage cover, secured
with an elastic headband (which itself retains a small bottle of GI
insect repellent). He also wears an M-1956 GI pistol belt over his
uniform jacket, which retains a standard issue GI 1-quart canteen and
cover, situated at the left rear hip.
The man on the left is less
specific in gear and uniform, but he appears to be a U.S. Army Soldier,
as he wears a Tropical ("Boonie") Hat, which was widely worn by Army
combat personnel in Vietnam, and to a much lesser extent by Marines. His
uniform consists of the tropical combat jacket and trousers, and jungle
boots. This man wears no body armor, and is armed with an M60 machine
gun, and he carries two belts of 7.62mm ammunition draped and criss-crossed
over his torso. He is also wearing an M17 Protective (Gas) Mask carrier
on his left hip, although U.S. troops infrequently wore or used gas
masks in Vietnam. (They were used primarily when tear gas (CS) was
employed in combat, such as by tunnel rats, and by troops engaged in
urban/city combat, such as the Marines in Hue City in January and
February, 1968). Under his uniform jacket, he also wears a GI pistol
belt with two GI 1-quart canteens with covers, situated at the right
rear hip.
The statue's three men are
purposely identifiable as Caucasian (the lead man), African American
(man on right), and Hispanic (man on left). These three figures were
based on three actual young men models, of which two (the Caucasian, and
the African-American) were active-duty Marines at the time.
The Three Soldiers statue was
designed to supplement the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, by adding a more
traditional component such as a statue that depicted warriors from that
respective war.
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