The Vietnam Veterans' Memorial 

This Memorial is one of the most visited sites in Washington. Famous for "the Wall," it also contains this statue of three soldiers--almost eerie in its realism.

As a Vietnam Veteran, I have visited this spot often and am always moved by what I see and feel there. Sometimes I look for names on the wall, most of which I have found before, names that include dozens of friends, USNA classmates, fellow Marines, soldiers, sailors and airmen, or men in the artillery battery I commanded, one of whom was killed before I even met him. Sometimes I look at the gifts people have placed at the foot of the wall, or watch people making rubbings of names, or just standing there. I have seen young people staring at the names of fathers they never knew,or uncles they have heard stories about. I have watched old timers salute their buddies one more time, often with tears in their eyes. I have seen foreign tourists looking at the exhibit with expressions of incomprehension, and others who just stand there shaking their head. What do people see when they go to the Wall, and what they want to see? The polished, black granite reflects everyone who passes by, and when you stop and look straight into the wall, what you see is the face of war.