‘The Wall’ is turning 35, and the man behind it wants to honor this generation’s fallen
By: Jan C. Scruggs, March 24, 2017 (Photo Credit: Mike Morones/Staff)
Editor's note: The following is a guest commentary.
On Sunday, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial will host a ceremony to commemorate the 35th anniversary of its historic groundbreaking. The idea for a memorial engraved with names of the fallen flowed from my academic research and from testimony before the Senate on what is now called post-traumatic stress, a common reaction to witnessing violence.
The memorial was planned as a societal acknowledgement of those who served, funded by the American people. I started the effort in 1979 while a GS-7 at the Labor Department, thanks to the permission of my wife. This was nonstop work, day after day.
http://www.militarytimes.com/articles/the-wall-is-turning-35-and-the-man-behind-it-wants-to-honor-this-generations-fallen
