AII POW-MIA - Histories

Touch it... touch them... "The Tent"

Once upon a time before there was an official monument, there was a ratty, old, green Army tent... it stood on a busy Washington, DC corner, with traffic speeding by, pedestrians wandering and vendors hawking and calling... but the battered tent stood, ephemeral, time and people passing...

It was the mid -1970's and on the very corner where a monument would one day stand, the Army tent stood... a makeshift monument manned by volunteers and family members and vets and anyone else who had the presence of mind to donate a day, even an hour, and help out.

It was an unofficial monument-cum-welcome-home station. At the door there was a wood box with a pair of boots still muddy with the remnants of Vietnam. On the ground an upturned helmet into which one could drop a 'buck for luck' ... if you had it. Inside were broken tables held together with duct tape upon which were placed piles of papers, all of them about Prisoners of War and Missing In action in Vietnam. The forgotten men of a war most just wanted to forget about. There were cardboard shoe boxes full of simple POW-MIA bracelets, pins, more papers, bumper stickers, even more papers and always a bunch of good folks with a smile on their faces and the words 'Welcome Home' on their lips.

This was the FIRST Vietnam Veterans Memorial... haphazard, homemade and from the heart. A buoy... a rest stop... a flare... a fire base... whatever you wanted to call it, it was there. There was cold coffee and stale donuts and a hug. There was all the information you could imagine on the boys we left behind. There were bios and names like Hrdlicka, Shelton, Scharf, Pridemore, Burns... thousands of names. Thousands. Going to the tent was like a pilgrimmage... wandering down Pennsylvania Avenue, past the reflecting pond and veering left towards the Lincoln monument... there it stood like a beacon.

And then one day it was gone. After years of sun and rain and heat and cold, the tent flaps were folded for the last time and it was simply gone.

It was 1979 and a new wind blew through the nation. Its whisperings said a major monument to the men and women of Vietnam was coming and it would be here, on the very corner where the tent stood, and the riff raff could stand down and go home. A stranger named Jan Scruggs had spoken.

A major push began with the incorporation of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund (VVMF) and as donations from the public were sought, so was that two-acre corner of Constitution Gardens from Congress. In the fall of 1980, a design competition was announced, the competition open to any US citizen 17 years of age and older, the requirements were - that the design inspire reflection and thought, marry well to its surroundings, be able to contain the names of all servicemembers who died or 'remained missing' (no mention of POWs) and finally, make no political statement. In the Spring of 1981 the juried review showed that submission #1026 was the unanimous selection based on its meeting the formal requirements of the competition.

Submission #1026 was made by Maya Lin, a 22-year old architecture student who designed what was to become known colloquially as 'The Wall' for a furnerary design class at Yale University. Ms Lin wrote, " Walking through this park, the memorial appears as rift in the earth. A long, polished, black stone wall, emerging from and receding on either side, growing out of the earth, extend and converge at a point below and ahead. Walking into this grassy site contained by the walls of the Memorial, we can barely make out the carved names upon the Memorial's walls. These names, seemingly infinite in number, convey the sense of overwhelming numbers, while unifying these individuals into a whole. The Memorial is composed not as an unchanging monument, but as a moving composition to be understood as we move into and out of it. The passage itself is gradual; the descent to the origin slow, but it is at the origin that the Memorial is to be fully understood. At the intersection of these walls, on the right side, is carved the date of the first death. It is followed by the names of those who died in the war, in chronological order. These names continue on this wall appearing to recede into the earth at the wall's end. The names resume on the left wall as the wall emerges from the earth, continuing back to the origin where the date of the last death is carved."

Immediately the hew and cry from Vietnam Veterans and others was overwhelming and, sadly, all aspects of the monument process were open for attack. The immediate response was that The Wall, with it's near-58,000 original inscribed names, indeed looked like a massive headstone. The fact the monument was designed in-ground also brought about much comment and controvesy. Many a vet was heard to say the monument was being 'buried' the same way that the Vets were. Many were incensed that East Indian granite would be used rather than North American. And others openly attacked Ms. Lin's ancestry with acrimonious and, at times, racist, cristicism. Many were horrified that more was being invested in the monument than in Veterans themselves and lastly, the fact that those who 'remained missing' would be included sent a red flag up. The clear phrase, nothing political, insured that POWs and MIAs were excluded in any manner except 'unaccounted-for' and their inclusion on The Wall, although welcome by many, was seen by just as many as a means by the powers-that-be to finally 'bury' the POWs, MIAs and issue itself.

Over a three and a half year period, US$8.4 million was raised from a quarter million supporters and in March 1982, work on the monument began. After the official groundbreaking, the panels - 142 total, 140 of which have names inscribed - were placed in the now familiar sloping V. Prior to all the panels being set, the process of inscribing the original 57,939 names began in Vermont. The names of casualties were acquired through the Department of Defense, under Executive Order #11216 (Johnson) which specified Vietnam and adjacent coastal waters as a combat zone. This zone was expanded to include Laos and Cambodia, and air force bases in Thailand. After 7 1/2 months of labor the monument was dedicated on Veterans Day, November 13th, 1982. Nearly 58,000 names were inscribed, each with a symbol either before or after it... a diamond denoting confirmed casualty; a cross denoting 'unaccounted-for'; a diamond superimposed over a cross for 'remains returned'; and in the event an 'unaccounted-for' man, what we call a POW or MIA returned alive, a circle, meaning life, would be etched around the diamond. It would be another two years before the entire monument 'complex' was completed and turned over to the National Parks Service in 1984.

Although there had been previous noise over the design and final translation, once The Wall was dedicated what was notable was the profound silence. The public was stunned. It was a monument of polarities, so much like the war itself and the warriors. Here stood a massive black wall, rising out of the ground and then as suddenly slinking back in... like a sea serpent, the Loch Ness monster, silently rising and then disappearing into the depths. It's cold black face reflected the warm golden sunsets, the Washington Monument and the faces that gazed at its surface. The blackness was broken by the grey etchings... names, names and names... overwhelming, names everywhere... down at the ground, to the left, the right and above, there were the names.... the neverending names.

But there was something else. For all the issues, all the emotions, all the everythings, this wall called to you, no, it screamed and demanded that you reach out and touch it. And once you touched it, you were never the same, and never would be... because it touched back.

Before The Wall was even built, 'things' were left. The very first 'offering' was a Purple Heart that was dropped into the wet cement used to secured one of the footings of the monument. Throughout the 7 month installation process numerous offerings and 'things' were left and by the time The Wall was dedicated, it was common practice to 'leave something behind.'

Yes, there were and are the flower arrangements and memorials so customarily found at monuments and on holidays. But the offerings here transcended any and every conceivable category. Medals, ribbons, POW-MIA bracelets, unit patches, regimental flags, uniform pieces... buttons, caps, rank, boots, gloves, belt buckles, MOS pins and devices. But, there are also the personal items... some simply personal... a high heel, lipstick, a flag, a teddy bear, birthday cards, letters, pictures of children, a birth announcement and a Christmas tree. There's the boonie hats and t-shirts, plaques, a pair of lacy undies and a class ring...

and then there's the silent settlement of a debt finally paid... the pack of cigarettes, the squashed shell casing, a can of beer...

Because of the massive number of 'things' left at The Wall, the US Park Service decided to treat the offerings as a museum collection and carefully collect and catalog the more than 55,000 items left at The Wall. Every evening, Park Service personnel walk the length and quietly collect the day's offerings. The Smithsonian Museum houses a small sampling of the offerings in their American Museum building on The Mall. The rest of the collection is curated and maintained by the NPS Museum Resource Center which, on occasion, has put together curated shows of the collection for loan to other museums and libraries.

After the completion and dedication of The Wall in 1982, there was a second addition and dedication, this time in 1984. Added to the immediate Vietnam Veterans Memorial area was a statue, the Three Man Statue and a flag pole. These were added to abate the continued criticism of The Wall design and the fact that most veterans, and Americans in general, were appalled that no US flag flew over the monument to America's longest war. But it lit a new controversy.

The Three Man Statue, inarguably a magnificent piece of art, with its bronze figures gazing longingly at the vast neverending wall of names before them was to create a bitter controversy that would sour and divide so many forever. The statue was designed and executed by Frederick Hart... a draft dodger.... problem #1. The statue was copyrighted by Mssrs. Hart and Jan Scruggs, President of the VVMF... problem #2. The likeness of the Three Man Statue was then licensed, for profit, for every conceivable doo-dad known to man... key chains, T-shirts, patches, stickers, memroabilia plates and spoons, paperweights and snowglobes, posters, postcards and heaven knows what else... problem #3. Had the issue remained there it is probable that people would have seen the statue, marveled at its beauty and meaning, bought their postcard and gone home. But it didn't.

After the ratty green tent was struck to make way for Mr. Scruggs monument, a variety of Veterans and POW-MIA activists began a 24 hour a day, 365 day a year vigil at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial, a hundred feet or so from where the walkway of The Wall ends. One of the vigils replicated images of The Wall, the Three Man Statue and the POW MIA logo on printed material. Afterall, it WAS a national monument was it not? It wasn't... at least in the traditional sense of the word. As the Three Man Statue was a copyrighted and licensed work of art, Jan Scruggs and VVMF went after the vigil folks with every ounce the weight of law would allow. Spectacular lawsuits were filed and even more spectacular requests for 'royalties' due from the Three Man Statue image being reproduced, primarily in free hand-out literature and newspapers were demanded. And Mr. Scruggs prevailed. Soon, many a vet had no desire to see 'Jan Scruggs' Statue' and many a day one would see a group of Marines, in uniform, plotting how to drag and dump the statue into the Potomac a few hundred feet away, and an easy task for a Marine. Ultimately, the acrimony became so intense and the legal wrangling so drawn out that POW-MIA memorabilia - considered a 'political statement' - was banned from The Mall beginning in March 1998.

With the exception of 8 women's names, all nurses, on The Wall, women were not represented by the Three Man Statue or anything else in the general vicinity. Without question, women served and died in Vietnam, women went missing and were taken Prisoner, and they returned home to the same issues... PTSD, Agent Orange, neglect, abuse, stigmata, addictions, all enhanced by additional experiences the women had endured that were theirs and theirs alone. It was decided to add a Women's statue to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial area and another design competition was underway.

The original winner was a magnificent piece of art... a nurse standing holding a new Vietnamese baby in her arms. She was strong, she was gentle, she was a mother, sister, sweetheart and daughter and all things to all who saw her. But she was not politically correct and soon she was relegated to some VA hospital in the middle of the country and a new politically correct design selected, this one by artist Glenna Goodacre. It shows three women, one holding a wounded man, evidently on the front line, looking heavenward for the medivac chopper to whisk him out of harm's way. It is also beautiful and it also remains a controversial aspect of this monument that is made and remade daily, not by the VVMF but by the endless exodus of people who make the pilgrimmage and leave a piece of themselves behind.

Whatever one's perspective, whatever their opinion, The Wall is not only a monument but a moment... it is a place where people come to wander, to look, read, touch and yes, to heal. It is a headstone for some, a place where their loved one is remembered when that loved-one is not accounted-for. It is a place of remembering, a place of gathering, honoring and most importantly a place of healing. Letting go of the past or perhaps allowing it to finally catch up... we all grieve and heal in our own way and in our own time.

But this place, this wall, this black page that is the legacy of Vietnam is a special place, almost sacred, where all you have to do to touch your buddy, your youth, your guy again is simply reach out... and it will touch back.

For more information on the Collection of Offerings left at The Wall, please go to -

Artwork: AII POW-MIAText Credit: History - AII POW MIA/Andi Wolos Wall Images Courtesy of: The National Parks Service, National Capital Region and Parks & History Association