Vietnam War Memorial

Other than the names, nothing on the Wall describes who the men and women were. No name appears any more meaningful or important than any other. The names are distinguished only by how the men and women were lost. A diamond next to a name indicates a person was killed. A plus next to a name indicates a person is missing. Over 1,000 of the names on the Wall are of people who are missing.

Every day, family and friends of those on the Wall, and the general public, visit the memorial. Often, they leave flowers and momentos to remember their loved ones. They leave letters to say thank-you, good-bye, "I'm sorry," and whatever else is in their heart. Some take pencil rubbings of the name of someone special.

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall honors all who served, and in particular, those who were lost. The memorial puts a human face on what was America's longest war.

In the end, the compromise of the Three Servicemen Statue and flagpole fulfilled a purpose of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial--to help heal the nation's wounds. Citing pain as "a necessary part of...the healing process for the wounds of Vietnam," a former design opponent, Milt Copulos, confessed that although "the wall of the memorial could have been a wall between us," it instead "became a bridge."

Vietnam Women's Memorial

When Diane Carlson Evans, a former army nurse in Vietnam, first saw the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, she felt something was missing. Her efforts to highlight the service of women in Vietnam were rewarded on November 11, 1993, when the Vietnam Women's Memorial was dedicated.

The sculpture, designed by Texas native Glenna Goodacre, depicts three uniformed women with a wounded soldier. While one nurse comforts the soldier, another kneels in thought or prayer. The third looks to the skies - for help from a medevac helicopter, or perhaps from a higher power. Goodacre left the interpretation open so that people could read into it whatever they wished.

Support for the memorial came from all over. Letters poured into the Vietnam Women's Memorial Project, coming from both male and female veterans. Nurses spoke of the horror of war and the difficulty of talking to their friends about what they had seen. One said that in only a year, she had left behind her youth and her innocence.

Soldiers remembered the nurses with love and affection - the kind smile, the gentle touch, the soft words that eased their pain. Parents spoke with gratitude of the nurses who had sent their sons home to them. Evans felt that without those nurses, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial wall would stretch for fifty miles.

The women's war was different from the men's - instead of exploding in the jungle, it blew up in the mind. Surrounded by death, the nurses had to shut down emotionally. They could not show their feelings to the soldiers they were trying to heal. Like the Vietnam Wall, the Vietnam Women's Memorial has brought healing.

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