Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Washington DC

There’s a lot of history with this memorial. Too much drama related to the war and a very charged American population, thus the memorial that cuts deep into the earth and looks like a wound that has been healing for years. The reflective wall allows us to look past the names and realize that, in a different age, those names could have been ours. I wasn’t aware that 1/2 of those who died were only 18 years of age and the average age of those who passed away is just over 19. God bless our veterans and their families for the trial is equally tough to bear for those who died and those who survived.

One of the best designed approaches to a memorial that I have ever experienced. Walking below the ground level, sinking into the names listed by year, is so powerful. Seeing the names and being able to feel them carved into the highly polished stone is very effective to humanizing the losses of the Vietnam War. Seeing yourself reflected in the stone while looking upon the names is a stark reality that all of these people listed were humans; they were alive and breathing in the face of war. Whether your feelings and beliefs about our involvement, you can’t deny how solemn and respectful this memorial is and was designed to be. It’s an honor to experience this memorial and live in a country that values this type of solution for how to humanize and memorialize those lost.