VVMF

VIETNAM VETERANS MEMORIAL FUND CONTRIBUTES $50,000 TO ENSURE COMMEMORATIVE PLAQUE COMPLETION
Newest Addition Will Honor Vietnam Veterans Not Eligible for Inscription on The Wall

WASHINGTON, D.C., September 9, 2003 --- The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund today agreed to donate $50,000 to the American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC) to ensure the completion of a Congressionally authorized addition to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, announced Jan C. Scruggs, the Memorial Fund's founder and president.

The Memorial Fund Board of Directors has approved a $50,000 grant to the ABMC supporting the construction of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Commemorative Plaque. Three years ago through Public Law 106-214, Congress authorized the ABMC to erect a commemorative plaque honoring those veterans who died after their service during the Vietnam War but as a result of that service, and whose names are not eligible for inscription on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall.

"We applaud the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund for their steadfast commitment to honoring the service and sacrifice of America's Vietnam veterans," Major General John P. Herrling, USA (Ret.), ABMC Secretary, said. "They have been a key partner in our effort to add this commemorative plaque to the Memorial. Their latest contribution of $50,000 gets us over the funding hurdle and ensures the Plaque's completion."

Added House Resources Committee Chairman Richard Pombo (R-CA): "For more than 20 years, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund has consistently shown its commitment and dedication to preserving the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. By providing this $50,000 grant, visitors to the Memorial will have a better understanding of those who served and sacrificed in the Vietnam War. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Commemorative Plaque will further teach our young people the lessons of the Vietnam War."

The Plaque legislation called for the addition to be erected within the existing two-acre Memorial site. It will be the fifth element on the Memorial site. Other Memorial elements include the Memorial Wall, the Three Servicemen statue, the Vietnam Women's Memorial and the flagpole. The Memorial Fund continues to work with Members of Congress, veterans organizations and the education community to pass legislation in the House of Representatives allowing for an underground Visitor Center to be built on the Memorial grounds. The Senate passed its version of the bill in July 2003.

In the Plaque's final stage, the ABMC needs $132,000 to complete the project, including construction, design fees and a National Park Service (NPS) maintenance fee required by the Commemorative Works Act. The ABMC successfully raised more than $80,000, however, all funds must be on-hand before NPS will issue a project construction permit. The Memorial Fund's $50,000 grant will allow the project to move forward.

For the past three years, the Memorial Fund has underwritten many of the costs associated with building momentum for the Plaque project. Prior to this latest grant, the Memorial Fund spent close to $100,000, hiring a team of design and architecture experts to develop a design solution and gain approval from the three federal commissions that oversee projects on the National Mall.

The design team comprises current Vietnam Veterans Memorial Architect-of-Record James Cummings, AIA, and Vietnam Women's Memorial landscape architect George Dickie, AIA, ALSA, who developed a design program statement and design recommendations. For a thorough site analysis study, the Memorial Fund hired Arnold Associates, a renowned landscape design firm, which affirmed earlier findings of an ABMC staff report and conclusions by the National Capital Memorial Commission that the Plaque should be located in the vicinity of the existing Three Servicemen statue on the Memorial grounds.

The design team determined the siting, design and inscription for the Plaque that would maintain the integrity of the existing Memorial, while honorably commemorating those individuals designated in the legislation. The design, inscription and siting of the Plaque have been approved by the National Capital Memorial Commission, the Commission of Fine Arts and the National Capital Planning Commission. It also has been endorsed by a veterans' coalition comprising the Memorial Fund, the Vietnam Women's Memorial Foundation and the Vietnam War In Memory Memorial, Inc.

"As founders and original caretakers of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, the Memorial Fund continues to be involved in all major projects that occur on the Memorial grounds," Scruggs said. "It is vital that this addition strikes a harmonious balance with the site's existing elements. We are confident that the Plaque will be in place in the near future."

The Plaque will be set flush into an extension of the existing paving within the northeast corner of the Three Servicemen Statue Plaza. At 24-inches tall by 36-inches wide, the proposed Plaque meets the size requirements of the authorizing legislation and accommodates the inscription proposed by the veterans' coalition. The inscription reads: “In memory of the men and women who served in the Vietnam War and later died as a result of their service. We honor and remember their sacrifice.”

The typeface matches that on the Memorial Wall and is proposed at one-and-one quarter inches tall to be comfortably read at standing height. The design inscribes the text into monolithic gray granite stone, which matches the adjacent paving, and fills the inscription with black grout to provide a finish that is legible from all sides and under all light conditions.

Dedicated on November 13, 1982, the Memorial was built to honor all who served with the U.S. Armed Forces during the Vietnam War. It has become an international symbol of healing that has helped bring together those who stood on opposing sides during one of the most divisive periods in American history. The Wall continues to be the most visited memorial in the nation's capital with more than four million visitors each year.

Established in 1979, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund is the non-profit organization authorized by Congress to build the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. Today, it has developed a series of outreach programs dedicated to preserving the legacy of The Wall, to promoting healing and to educating about the effects of the Vietnam War.

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