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News, Notes and Next from Arizona Theatre Company
Fall 2007
Volume XXI - No. 1
TOUCH THE NAMES |
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Facts About The Wall
The Vietnam Veterans Memorial, often referred to simply as “The Wall,” was dedicated on November 13, 1982 following a march to the site by thousands of Vietnam veterans.
The Wall is made up of two black granite panels that are each 246 feet, 9 inches long. The highest point of the wall stands 10.1 feet tall and the lowest point is at each end and measures 8 inches tall. The black granite was imported from Bangalore, India and was cut in Barre, Vermont.
As of 2007, there are 58,256 names on the wall, 1,200 of which are MIA, POW and others.
The names on the Wall are listed chronologically by the date the person received the injury that resulted in their death or the date that they were reported missing. On each date, the names are listed alphabetically. Some statistics about those whose names appear on the Wall: |
- The youngest military person killed in action is believed to be Dan Bullock USMC, at 15 years old.
- At least 5 men killed in Vietnam were 16 years old.
- At least 12 men killed in Vietnam were 17 years old.
- At least 29 sets of brothers were killed in Vietnam.
- At least 25,000 of those killed were 20 years old or younger.
- The oldest man killed was 62 years old.
- More than 17,000 of those killed were married.
- Soldiers killed on their first day in Vietnam: 997.
- Soldiers killed on their last day in Vietnam: 1,448
- Number of Chaplains on the Wall -16 (2 Medal Of Honor)
- Number of Women on the Wall - 8 (7 Army, 1 USAF - 7,484 served)
- Number of living soldiers whose name are accidentally etched on the Wall – anywhere from 12 to 38 (list from http://thewall-usa.com/)
A system of symbols is used on the Wall to demarcate each individual’s status – a diamond is used to indicate that a person’s death has been confirmed and a plus sign is used to indicate that the person’s whereabouts are still unknown (the plus sign is then surrounded by a diamond if the person is confirmed dead). A circle would be used to surround a plus sign if a MIA person were to be confirmed alive. As of August, 2007, no circles appear anywhere on the Wall.
The Wall cost $9,000,000 and was funded entirely through private contributions from businesses and organizations. Also, 275,000 individual Americans made contributions to help bring the wall into existence.
Maya Ying Lin designed the wall while still an undergraduate at Yale University. She was born to Chinese immigrant parents in 1959 in Athens, Ohio.
The Vietnam Veterans Memorial is now made up of four distinct parts that work together as a whole. The first part is the Wall; the second, a sculpture called The Three Soldiers, who gaze at the Wall as if remembering their fallen comrades; the third is the Vietnam Women’s Memorial, which depicts nurses attending to injured soldiers on the battlefield; and finally, a Memorial Plaque that honors those veterans whose injuries eventually resulted in their deaths, though not until after Vietnam conflict had ended and are thus ineligible for inclusion on the Wall.
All tributes left at the wall are collected daily (except miniature American flags) and stored at the Museum of Archaeological Regional Storage Facilities of the National Park Service. Soon, there will most likely be a museum to display these artifacts that help tell the story of the human cost of the Vietnam War.
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I. Michael and Beth Kasser |
