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The Vietnam Veterans Memorial::A Photo Tour

Last weekend I traveled up to Washington, D.C. to meet up with a friend for an 18-hour vacation from my technology-snafu-driven life. We woke up on Sunday to a crisp, clear, chilly, sunny – in all respects – a perfect fall day. Autumn is my favorite season – something about that “back to school” mentality – it’s always given me a feeling of unlimited potential and hope. My friend and I are avid, amateur photographers, so we decided to go on an impromptu walking tour of the mall.

Sometime just before noon, I found myself staring at three men in navy-blue uniforms standing in a tight-knit huddle in front of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, facing the 58,256 engraved names. The bright sun cast a glow above the National Mall and down onto the reflecting pool to the east. The polished black granite wall served as a reflector pool of its own – alternating shadow and illumination. Visitors wandered about with disposable cameras, bulky professional Nikons with zoom lenses and everything in between … evoking the sense of the transience and reflection that the memorial, since its 1982 groundbreaking, has sought to convey.

On November 13, the memorial turns 25. The criticism that dogged the project in its early days—its unconventional design, its black color, its lack of ornamentation—has given way to appreciation of its simple, emotional power. The twenty-fifth anniversary will be observed starting on November 6 with music and poetry. Over the next four days, the names of American soldiers who died in Vietnam will be read aloud. The first such reading took place in November 1982, a time when soldiers who had returned from the war were barely in their 30s. Veterans have embraced the wall in unexpected numbers, as has the general public. More than 3.6 million people visited last year, nearly triple the number of visitors to the White House and the Washington Monument combined.

I dug deep into the lobe in my brain that hopefully remembers a fraction of the American History I supposedly learned my junior year in high school. I somehow recalled that one of the stated goals of the Wall was to avoid commentary on the war itself, serving solely as a memorial to those who served.

In that spirit … I’ll simply leave you this morning with some photos I snapped as I wandered about with those who served, the Americans kneeling to honor the dead and patriots like me – folks hoping to learn a little bit more about gratitude and yearn a lot more for peace in Iraq.

Click here to see the pictures

posted by Jason Parsley @ 4:38 PM