On this day in 1982-30 years ago the Vietnam War Veterans Memorial was dedicated in Washington D.C. The Vietnam War Veterans Memorial’s designer was Maya Lin, a  Yale University architectual student who won a nationwide competition to design the memorial. I remember it being kind of controversial at the time but I think it was a brilliant idea having the names of all the American’s who died during the conflict [57,939} listed not in order of rank but in the order that they died. Everytime I go to D.C. I have to visit the wall and I am always moved. The Vietnam War Veterans Memorial ranks up their with the Lincoln Memorial on my list of favourite memorials in the National Mall area.

Note- Walking along the wall one year on the annual 8th grade Washington D.C. trip with my students one of them said to me “Wouldn’t it be strange if your name was on the wall?” We continued to walk along the wall and less than a minute later I saw my name on the wall. I went back and looked the soldiers name up in the book they have their identifying all the names on the wall and it was spooky. The soldier whose name was on the wall was born exactly ten years before I was-same date just ten years eariler and he was from the Pittsburgh area just an hour away from the Postcard Compound.