News Release: Fund commemorates 25h anniversary of the Vietnam Veterans memorial

13 November 2006

At the annual Veterans Day Ceremony at The Wall, Memorial Fund Founder and President Jan Scruggs announced the beginning of a year-long commemoration of the 25th anniversary of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

The Wall was completed and dedicated on Nov. 13, 1982. The Memorial Fund’s commemoration of this anniversary will last from Veterans Day 2006 to Veterans Day 2007.

“It is hard to believe that next Veterans Day will mark the 25th anniversary of the dedication of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial,” Scruggs said as he announced the year-long commemoration. “In January 1982, it looked like the Memorial might not happen…now, nearly 25 years later, the memorial is the most visited in Washington, D.C.”

Plans are in the works for commemorative and educational events to be held throughout the year and across the country. The first of them will be a commemoration of the 25th anniversary of the groundbreaking for The Wall, which will take place on Monday, March 26, 2007 and will include a ceremony and wreath laying.

The highlight of the anniversary commemoration will be the Reading of the Names during a ceremony that will begin the 2007 Veterans Day Observance. The Reading of the Names takes approximately 65 hours to complete and will occur over four days, from Nov. 7-10, 2007. The names will be read chronologically by casualty date.  This will be the fourth time in The Wall’s 25-year history that all of the names have been read aloud in Washington, D.C. Others readings took place at the National Cathedral before The Wall was dedicated in 1982 and at the Memorial on the 10th and 20th anniversaries. The 2007 Reading of the Names will also be conducted at the Memorial.

Members of the public are welcome to volunteer to read names during the November 2007 event. Updates, forms and deadlines will be available on the Memorial Fund Web site (www.vvmf.org) beginning in January. For more information about the history of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, click here.

Established in 1979, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund is a nonprofit organization authorized by Congress to build the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. Today, through a series of outreach programs, it is dedicated to preserving the legacy of The Wall, promoting healing, educating about the impact of the Vietnam War and is building the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Center, an underground educational facility, near The Wall.

Copyright © VietnamGear.com. All rights reserved. This material is intended solely for internal use within VietnamGear.com. Any other reproduction, publication or redistribution of this material without the written agreement of the copyright owner is strictly forbidden and any breach of copyright will be considered actionable