VIETNAM WAR VETERANS SALUTE 15-YEAR-OLD `WALL THAT HEALS'.Byline: Bob Dart Cox News Service Their hair is gray and their stomachs are soft now, and they pulled off bifocals to wipe their tears Tuesday as a young folk singer at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Vietnam Veterans Memorial, war memorial in Washington, D.C., built 1982. Designed by the American sculptor and architect Maya Ying Lin, it is a sloping, V-shaped, 493-ft (150-m) wall of highly polished black granite that descends 10 feet (3. chronicled the tragedy of their generation with the opening lines of ``50,000 Names.'' ``There's teddy bears, old high school rings, faded photographs their mamas bring,'' sang Jamie O'Hara For the country music artist of the same name, see . Jamie Darryl O'Hara (born September 25 1986 in Dartford, England) is an English footballer who is contracted as a central midfielder for Tottenham Hotspur. He regularly features in the reserve team as well as the Under-18's. to the legions that gathered on Veterans Day to mark the 15th anniversary of the monument they know simply as The Wall. ``It is truly a wall that heals,'' said James Kimsey, chairman emeritus of America Online See AOL. and a Vietnam War Vietnam War, conflict in Southeast Asia, primarily fought in South Vietnam between government forces aided by the United States and guerrilla forces aided by North Vietnam. veteran. ``You come to search for the names of buddies and you see yourself reflected in the black granite and you realize that it could easily be your name on that wall.'' On this chilly autumn holiday, dozens of flowered wreaths adorned the memorial that bears the names of 58,209 Americans who died in the Vietnam War. But there were also poems, dog tags, pictures and other personal tributes from families and friends who remember the faces behind the names. ``Most have been dead longer than they lived,'' lamented Ann Cunningham, who served two tours as an Army nurse in Vietnam. The commemoration at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial came hours after President Clinton conducted the traditional Veterans Day ceremony across the Potomac River Potomac River River, east-central U.S. Rising in the Appalachian Mountains of West Virginia, it is about 287 mi (462 km) long. It flows southeast through the District of Columbia into Chesapeake Bay. It is navigable by large vessels to Washington, D.C. in Arlington National Cemetery Arlington National Cemetery, 420 acres (170 hectares), N Va., across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C.; est. 1864. More than 60,000 American war dead, as well as notables including Presidents William Howard Taft and John F. Kennedy, Gen. John J. . Clinton laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns Tomb of the Unknowns in Arlington National Cemetery; commemorates nameless war dead. [Am. Hist.: Brewer Dictionary, 1118] See : Burial Ground , representing the unidentified dead of America's wars. ``The benefits the world enjoys today belong in no small measure to America's veterans,'' Clinton said at the event, which was carefully timed to start at 11 a.m. Eastern time - the hour when World War I hostilities ended Nov. 11, 1918. ``To make a promise of peace and prosperity a reality in a new era, America, with its special ability and its special responsibility, must continue to lead through peace and freedom against aggression and tyranny,'' Clinton said. The ranks of World War I and II veterans have dwindled, though, and the 8.5 million Americans who served in the armed forces during the Vietnam War era are now the largest veterans group. Wearing faded jungle fatigues and floppy bush hats, thousands of them gathered at the memorial that has become the enduring symbol of their war and era. ``When it was first built, a lot of people suspected it would get a lot of attention, but thought interest would diminish,'' said Jan Scruggs, president of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, Inc. (VVMF) was set up on April 27, 1979 as a non-profit organization by Jan Scruggs and several other Vietnam War veterans, in order to create a memorial for those who died during the Vietnam War without making any political statement about the . ``But it's become a symbol of the culture and almost transcends Vietnam.'' CAPTION(S): Photo Photo: Visitors show solidarity Tuesday at the 15-year-old Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. Associated Press |
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