LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Vietnam Veterans: Vietnam Veterans Memorial
built 263 days ago
The Vietnam Veterans Memorial is one of the newer additions to the National Mall and is a powerful place to visit. The Memorial is comprised of three distinct sections: "The Wall," the Three Service Men Statue, and the Women in Service to the Vietnam War Statue. The purpose of this memorial according to the National Park's Service which maintains the entire National Mall is "to separate the issue of the sacrifices of the veterans from the U.S. policy in the war, thereby creating a venue for reconciliation."
Source:
The Gathering of Eagles was formed by Vietnam veterans to protect the Vietnam Veterans Memorial from being desecrated as the Capitol was at an antiwar march last month. While there is no way to accurately gauge attendance, it is expected that thousands of veterans, their families and other patriotic Americans will gather that day to protect The Wall and other war memorials. In addition to Rolling Thunder and the Military Order of the Purple Heart, participants in the Gathering of Eagles rally include Move America Forward, which is organizing a cross-country caravan that will bring Gold and Blue Star parents and veterans to the Gathering of Eagles, and FreeRepublic.com.
Source:
The Vietnam Veterans Memorial, originally designed as a student project by Maya Lin at Yale University's School of Architecture in 1981, has become a profound symbol that has served to unify and reconcile a nation sorely divided by a foreign entanglement. Lin envisioned a black granite wall, in the shape of a V, on which the names of the American military dead and missing would be inscribed. The architect hoped that "these names, seemingly infinite in number, [would] convey the sense of overwhelming numbers, while unifying these individuals into a whole."
Source:
Vietnam Veterans Memorial war memorial in Washington, D.C., built 1982. Designed by the American sculptor and architect Maya Ying Lin, it is a sloping, V-shaped, 493-ft (150-m) wall of highly polished black granite that descends 10 feet (3.05 meters) below grade level at its vertex. Often called simply "The Wall," it is inscribed with the names of the more than 58,000 Americans killed or missing during the Vietnam War . The austere, abstract nature of Lin's design, which was selected after a nationwide competition, at first made it a controversial way of memorializing the war's casualties. In the years since its construction... the simple, evocative, and starkly dramatic wall has become a national shrine, drawing more annual visitors than the Washington Monument or the Lincoln Memorial . Two nearby sculptures also honor those who served in the war; one is of three soldiers by Frederick E. Hart (erected 1984), the other of three nurses and a wounded soldier by Glenna Goodacre (erected 1993).
Source:
The Vietnam Veterans Memorial is administered by the National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior. Address inquiries to the Superintendent, National Capital Parks - Central, 900 Ohio Drive, SW, Washington, DC 20242.
Source:
On Memorial Day 2001, the National Vietnam Veterans Art Museum added a stirring and spectacular new exhibit to its already highly praised fine art collection. The work of art, an immense 10 x 40 foot sculpture entitled Above & Beyond, is comprised of imprinted dog tags, one for each of the more than 58,000 service men and women who died in the Vietnam War. Above & Beyond is the first new permanent Vietnam War memorial, other than The Wall in Washington, D.C., to list all those killed in action.
Source:
MORE ABOUT
Vietnam Veterans Memorial