Vietnam Memorial
Moving Wall To Be Displayed & History
of the Vietnam Memorial
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| Vietnam Memorial Moving Wall To Be Displayed
During the last week of October (from October 24-29, 1998)
residents will have the opportunity to view the Vietnam Memorial Moving Wall at
the Rancho Cucamonga Epicenter- Soccer Fields. The Moving Wall is a replica of
the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. Conceived by John DeVitt,
Gerry Harver and Norris Shears, Vietnam Veterans from California, the Moving
Wall was built so that people who lived far away from the nation's capital might
have a chance to experience the wall.
Construction of the Moving Wall began in February,
1983, and was completed in October, 1984. Its construction was paid for, like
the Vietnam Veteran Memorial in Washington, D.C., solely from contributions from
the public. The overall length of the Moving Wall is 252.83 feet and is composed
of 74 separate frames. Each frame contains two silk-screened panels which are
approximately one-half the length of the Memorial in Washington, D.C. The
tallest panels have 137 lines of names, while the shortest panel has one
line.
Originally there were five names on each line, but with
the addition of names, some lines now have six names. At the vertex, the walls
are 6 feet in height; in Washington D.C. the center panels are 10.2 feet in
height. The Moving Wall is made of .100" thick aluminum panels, with a
surface allodined and painted a 2-part polyurethane gloss black which gives a
mirror like finish and is mounted on angular aluminum frames. The Memorial in
Washington, D.C. is composed of polished black granite.
The Vietnam Memorial Moving Wall will be available for
viewing by the public on a 24-hour basis. A special opening ceremony is being
planned for Saturday, October 24, 1998 at the Epicenter. Details of this event
will be made available through the City's public access channel and in the
Inland Valley Daily Bulletin.
For more information please contact Paula Pachon at,
477-2760, extension 2105. |
| History of the Vietnam Memorial On July 1, 1980, Congress authorized a site in Constitution
Gardens near the Lincoln Memorial for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Later that
Fall it was announced that the memorial's design would be selected through a
national competition open to any U.S. citizen 18 years of age or older. The
1,421 design entries submitted were judged anonymously by a jury of eight
internationally recognized artists and designers.
The winning design was the work of Maya Ying Lin, of
Athens, Ohio, who at the time was a 21 year college student at Yale University.
Lin conceived her design as creating a park within a park - a quiet protected
place unto itself, yet harmonious with the site. To achieve this effect she
chose polished black granite for the walls. Its mirror like surface reflects the
surrounding trees, lawns, monuments, and the people looking for names.
The memorial's walls point to the Washington Monument
and the Lincoln Memorial. The 58,209 names are inscribed in chronological order
of the date of casualty, showing the war as a series of human sacrifices and
giving each name a special place in history. According to Lin, "the names
would become the memorial". The Memorial was dedicated on November 13,
1982.
The names begin at the vertex of the walls below the
date of the first casualty (1959) and continue to the end of the east wall. They
resume at the tip of the west wall, ending at the vertex above the date of the
last death (1975). With the meeting of the beginning and ending, a major epoch
in American history is denoted. Each name is receded on the west wall followed
on the east wall by one of two symbols: a diamond or a cross. The diamond
denotes that the individual's death was confirmed.
The approximately 1,150 persons whose names are
designated by the cross were either missing in action or prisoners at the end of
the war and remain missing and unaccounted for. If a person returns alive, a
circle, as a circle of life, will be inscribed around the cross. In the event an
individual's remains are returned or are otherwise accounted for, the diamond
will be superimposed over the cross. |
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