The black granite slabs of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington are never without visitors.
Better known simply as “the Wall,” the stones are carved with the names of more than 58,000 men and women who died during combat that spanned Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos from 1958 to 1975.
Now, 50 years after that war’s end, the Wall continues to draw more than five million visitors every year.
To take it all in, you would have to stand in the middle of the memorial at the wall’s apex, facing the stone.
The first American to die in the war appears to your right. What follows are names listed in alphabetical order by date of death. As they reach the tapered end of the eastern wall on the right, the chronology wraps around and continues at the far left end of the western wall until it meets the apex.
Those whose bodies were recovered are marked with a small diamond. Those whose remains have yet to be found have a small cross by their names. When they are located, identified and repatriated, the crosses will be chiseled into diamonds.
