THE WALL

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall, designed by Maya Ying Lin, contains the names of the 58,220 men and women who were killed and remain missing from the war.

The names are listed in the order in which the men and women died or were declared missing. The first name is located in the center of the memorial, at the top of the Wall, under the date "1959," the year of the first death. The names continue line by line down each panel, as if each were a page in a book, towards the right end of the memorial. The names resume at the left end of the memorial and continue toward the center. It is here, at the bottom of the wall, where the last death is recorded, next to the date "1975." A diamond next to a name indicates a person was killed. A plus next to a name indicates a person is missing. Over 1,000 of the names on the Wall are of people who are missing.