Almost as soon as I posted my trip to DC I realized I had made a mistake, albeit a small one. The Vietnam Memorial is not made of marble but of black granite. Coming from Bangalore, India, it was cut in Barre, VT. The monument was designed by Maya Ying Lin from Athens, Ohio. I also discovered the first known casualty of the war was Richard B. Fitzgibbon fromNorth Weymouth, MA who was killed on June 8, 1956. Sadly his son, Richard B. Fitzgibbon III followed his father into war and was killed just over nine years later.
As I investigated the material on the web at the address "http://thewall-usa.com/information.asp" I also wanted to find out how many service men and women had been killed in Vietnam. What I learned was that The Wall lists 58,260 names. Out of those 58,260, 1200 are still missing, meaning 57,060 soldiers were killed in the Vietnam War. Consider the population of Princeton -- about 3600. That means the number of people who either died or are missing in Vietnam could have filled and re-filled our town over 16 times. As I walked down The Wall I saw mementos friends and family had left behind for their soldiers: pictures of the guys in the unit with an arrow pointing to their loved one, a little bouquet of flowers. As wonderful a tribute The Wall is to those dedicated Americans who gave their lives for their country, I wish there had been no reason for The Wall and that those brave soldiers were living among us.
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Yes, visitors leave touching remembrances to their fallen friends and relatives at the Vietman Veterans Memorial in Washington.
The web site named The Virtual Wall at www.VirtualWall.org also has thousands of personal remembrances in the form of letters, poems, photographs, and citations.
THE VIRTUAL WALL web site does not accept fees, donations, subscriptions, or advertising in order to honor the fallen. I'm one of the unpaid volunteers.
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