One of the draws about going to Washington D.C. is the fact that there is so much history there – not only made on a daily basis, but captured in the form of memorials for those who gave their lives and museums of the past marking the progress our nation has made.
One memorial, in its stark and honest facade, is the Vietnam Memorial. Unlike any other memorial in our nation’s capitol, the Vietnam Memorial lists (as best we know) the names of every American lost in the Vietnam War. One might say that its purpose is being served by having so many names etched into its granite surface – reminding us of how many lives we lost. But the National Archives offers a different view in that they think the wall is incomplete. And through state of the art technology, they have developed a way to complete this structure to honor America’s finest who fell in or as a result of the conflict.
Introducing the Virtual Wall – a representation of the Vietnam Memorial that you can view on your computer. But not only can you zoom in and find the name of anyone you’d like on the wall, you can also add a picture, classification information
To read the article from CNN.com, click this link:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/04/01/vietnam.wall/index.html
To go straight to the virtual Wall itself, click this link.
http://go.footnote.com/thewall
The site is free and you can even download an image of the name of a fallen family member, as I have done here with Erhard Jimmie Adams.
Sgt. Adams was in the 12th Security Police Squadron of the Air Force when he lost his life as a result of non-hostile action. He was also a Cumberland County resident whose name also appears on the Vietnam Memorial in Freedom Park in Fayetteville, NC. He was laid to rest at Cumberland Memorial Gardens in Fayetteville.
Past that, you can also find out Sgt. Adams’ rank and file all the way down to his line, where he was at his death and some personal information as well.
The task of completing all of these names and the information behind them is an effort to make the wall seem a bit more human than what appears to be a long list of names – men and women who gave their lives for their country.
If you lost a loved one in the Vietnam War, go to the site and see if you can help the National Archives fill in information about that person. Again, it is another way that we can preserve the memories of our loved ones outside of stone monuments and granite slabs. This is a way you can take part of that memorial home with you.
2 Comments
April 3, 2008 at 4:08 am
A web site similar to the one you described above opened in 1997.
THE VIRTUAL WALL Vietnam Veterans Memorial at http://www.VirtualWall.org
has thousands of personal tributes to the fallen in the form of letters, photographs, and citations.
THE VIRTUAL WALL does not accept donations, fees, or advertising in order to honor the fallen.
In 2001 THE VIRTUAL WALL partnered to take high-resolution photographs of the Wall, which can be browsed and zoomed at
http://www.ViewTheWall.com
April 5, 2008 at 1:10 am
Thanks for leaving that note, I had not seen that site before. -tftm.