LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Vietnam Veterans Memorial: Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund
built 303 days ago
The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund is continuing to monitor the situation and has offered its help to both NPS and the Park Police. It has contacted the stoneworkers who work on The Wall to get their expert advice.
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The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund board of directors decided to hold a design competition open to all Americans. The design would need to be approved by the Secretary of the Interior, the Commission of Fine Arts, and the National Capital Planning Commission.
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Located between the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial on the Mall in Washington, D.C., the dramatic and somber Vietnam Veterans Memorial was dedicated in November 1982. The privately financed monument was officially accepted by Pres. Ronald Reagan on Nov. 11, 1984, when he signed a document transferring the memorial to the U.S. Park Service. The V-shaped memorial consists of two 250-ft walls of polished black granite sloping to the ground from an apex of 10 feet. The walls are inscribed with the names of the more than 58,000 U.S. men and women who were killed or missing in the Vietnam War. Privately funded through the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund headed by Jan Scruggs, the memorial was designed by Maya Ying Lin, a Yale architecture student whose design was chosen over 1,421 others submitted in the public competition.
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A group of Veterans soon began lobbying for a new memorial that would better honor those who gave the ultimate sacrifice in Vietnam. A number of other groups and individuals joined in the fundraising effort to erect a memorial displaying the names of Washingtonians killed or missing in action. Secretary of State Ralph Munro was particularly influential in rallying public and government support for the new memorial. Ultimately, the fundraising work was such a success that the $178,000 project was funded entirely by private means. A total of 1,466 individuals, groups, and corporations donated money—the majority in amounts less than $25. Shortly before the widely-attended dedication ceremony on Memorial Day, May 25, 1987, the memorial committee returned the money that had been donated by the state government.
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With the six new inscriptions, to be commemorated at Memorial Day services on Monday, the wall bears the names of 58,235 men and women who were killed in Vietnam or remain missing in action, according to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund. The Defense Department reviews medical records to determine if a Vietnam veteran's death was war-related... entitling him to a place on the wall. Since 1982, when the memorial was dedicated, 296 names have been added.
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Lisa Gough, Director of Communications for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, who stated in her press release of Sept. 11, 2007: “The United States Park Police has begun an investigation into the matter, and that investigation is ongoing. Until this investigation is completed, it is premature to speculate whether any intentional act was committed.”
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Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund