A Memorial Vision and The Flag Goes By Honoring Military Service

1 Maya Lin was born in Athens, Ohio, in 1959. Both of her parents emigrated from China. Her father made ceramics and served as the dean of the Ohio University College of Fine Arts. Her mother was a poet and taught literature at Ohio University. Lin’s aunt is considered the first female architect in modern China. Artistic creativity seemed to be in Lin’s blood. 2 After graduating from high school, Lin entered Yale University and majored in architecture. In 1981 when Lin was a 21-year-old senior, she was enrolled in a course on funereal architecture. One of the projects was to design a memorial. This project happened to be inspired by a notice posted at Yale that announced a competition for a memorial to honor veterans of the Vietnam War. 3 The idea for a memorial was conceived by Jan Scruggs, a Vietnam veteran. He hoped that this memorial would honor those who had lost their lives in the Vietnam War. He also hoped that it would unite veterans with those Americans who had opposed the war. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund was organized to collect funds to construct the memorial, and the organization announced the open competition. The U.S. government donated the site for the memorial. 4 Lin designed her memorial with the competition rules in mind, although she had no intention of entering her design in the competition. The memorial had to include the names of all the dead and missing soldiers from the war. And it could not make any political statements about the war. Lin’s final design was simple in its approach. It was a walled V-shaped monument in black, highly-polished granite. Etched into the granite were the nearly 58,000 deceased or missing in the war. The names were listed in time order of their loss. Lin felt her design represented the best way to honor Vietnam War veterans. When she visited the site where the memorial would be constructed, she wrote, “I imagined taking a knife and cutting into the earth, opening it up, an initial violence and pain that in time would heal.” 5 It was not until Lin had completed the design that she decided to enter it in the public competition for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. In all, 1,421 designs were submitted, and each entry was identified by only a number. The eight judges, composed of distinguished architects and artists, were tasked with selecting the winning design. Lin’s submission, entry 1026, was chosen as the winner of the competition. She was shocked when she learned that she had won the contest and would receive the $20,000 prize. 6 But not everyone lauded Lin’s design. In fact, some critics and members of Congress felt it was a shameful way to honor veterans. They felt the modern black design did not celebrate veterans in an impressive way. The controversy ended in a compromise. An American flag and a bronze statue depicting three soldiers were placed adjacent to the original design. The memorial was constructed, and on November 11, 1982, the memorial was dedicated and opened to the public. 7 Today, the memorial provides a place to honor those who were lost in this war and a place for those who remain to find comfort. Visitors can be seen running their hands along the two, 246-foot-long walls, looking for the names of loved ones who made the ultimate sacrifice to defend the freedom we hold dear. More than 10,000 people visit the memorial every day to show their respect. Thanks to Maya Lin and her simple design, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial will forever stand as a tribute to the brave men and women of the U.S. Armed Forces.

The Flag Goes By by Henry Holcomb Bennett

Hats off! Along the street there comes A blare of bugles, a ruffle of drums, A flash of color beneath the sky:

5 Hats off! The flag is passing by! Blue and crimson and white it shines, Over the steel-tipped, ordered lines. Hats off!

10 The colors before us fly; But more than the flag is passing by. Sea-fights and land-fights, grim and great, Fought to make and to save the State Weary marches and sinking ships;

15 Cheers of victory on dying lips; Days of plenty and years of peace; March of a strong land’s swift increase; Equal justice, right and law, Stately honor and reverend awe;

20 Sign of a nation, great and strong Toward her people from foreign wrong: Pride and glory and honor,—all Live in the colors to stand or fall. Hats off!

25 Along the street there comes A blare of bugles, a ruffle of drums; And loyal hearts are beating high: Hats off! The flag is passing by!