Vietnam Veterans Memorial

Education Center to Enhance Vietnam Veterans Memorial

Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, visits with U.S. Marine and Vietnam veteran Sgt. Paul Masi at the annual Memorial Day observance ceremony at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., May 31, 2010. A new education center to be built near the memorial will put faces and stories to the names on “The Wall” and preserve their legacy for future generations. DoD photo by Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Chad J. McNeeley

WASHINGTON, Sept. 27, 2010 – A major fundraising effort is under way to build an underground education center next to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial here that’ll place faces and stories with the names etched in the smooth, black granite known simply as, “The Wall.”

“There is magic in that wall with its 58,000 names,” said retired Army Gen. Colin Powell, honorary chairman for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund’s education center campaign. “We want to make sure those names never become anonymous to future generations.”

As it keeps their memories alive, Powell said the center also will “pay tribute to all generations of GIs who answer the call to serve.”

The education center, as envisioned by Jan Scruggs, founder and president of the Memorial Fund, will provide interactive exhibits and primary source materials to help visitors better understand the profound impact of the Vietnam War on servicemembers’ families, their communities and hometowns and the nation. Planned exhibits include a "Wall of Faces," to feature photos of those lost in Vietnam and a gallery of the more than 100,000 items left in tribute at the memorial’s wall since 1982. {read rest}