[00:04.60]The two black stone walls are set into the earth.
[00:10.11]They are about 76 meters long.
[00:13.11](They form a) wide letter "V".
[00:15.65]As you walk down into the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, the walls rise above you.
[00:22.73]Cut into the walls are the names of the 58,220 Americans who died or are still missing.
[00:32.73]The names are listed in the order that the soldiers died.
[00:37.07]Those who died together are remembered together.
[00:41.38]Nearby is a statue of three soldiers. They seem to be looking at the wall of names.
[00:49.19]The Vietnam Veterans Memorial has become one of the most-visited places in Washington.
[00:57.52]About one and one-half million people visit it every year.
[01:02.62]People who go there experience powerful emotions. Many say it has become almost a holy place.
[01:12.20]Almost any time of day, you can see people standing at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial wall.
[01:20.40]They are looking at the name of a family member or friend who died in Vietnam.
[01:27.95]Some reach out and touch the name. Some put a piece of paper over it.
[01:34.17]They rub the paper with a pencil so the name on the wall appears on the paper.
[01:40.65]In this way, they are able to take part of the memorial with them.
[01:56.61]The success of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial influenced veterans of the Korean War to press for a memorial of their own.
[02:10.04]Congress approved the idea.
[02:12.94]In July 1995, the Korean War Veterans Memorial opened.
[02:19.57]It is near the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
[02:23.46]It honors the men and women who served, and those who died, in the Korean War from 1950 to 1953.
[02:33.36]The Korean War Veterans Memorial has several parts.
[02:38.28]The war has been called "the Last Foot Soldier's War."
[02:43.32]So, the memorial includes a series of nineteen statues of soldiers, walking.
[02:50.16]Artist Frank Gaylord created the statues from steel.
[02:55.39]Each is more than two meters high.
[02:58.68]The soldiers seem to be moving up a hill toward a large American flag.
[03:05.44]On one side of the memorial is a stone walkway.
[03:09.78]It shows the names of the 22 countries that sent troops to serve in Korea under the United Nations command.
[03:19.68]On the other side is a shiny stone wall.
[03:23.62]It shows images of more than 2,400 support troops.
[03:29.58]These include nurses, cooks, and truck drivers.
[03:34.28]The faces were reproduced from photographs taken during the war.
[03:39.53]The last part of the memorial is the round Pool of Remembrance.
[03:46.25]The pool shows the number of American and United Nations forces who died or who were wounded,
[03:54.06]captured, or missing in the war.
[03:56.88]The number totals more than 2,000,000.
[04:01.03]Cut into the wall above the pool is the simple yet powerful message: "Freedom is not free."
[04:15.37]The newest war memorial in the Washington area has a long name.
[04:24.62]It is called the Women in Military Service for America Memorial.
[04:30.60]It is very different from the other war memorials.
[04:34.52]It recognizes the service of all the women who served in all of the nation's wars.
[04:41.42]1,800,000 American women were part of the country's military forces.
[04:49.38]Former President Ronald Reagan signed legislation in 1986 to honor American women in the military.
[04:58.92]A retired air force general, Wilma Vaught, was chosen to lead the effort to build the memorial.
[05:07.23]The memorial took eleven years to build. It cost more than 21,000,000 dollars.
[05:14.31]The women's military memorial opened in October 1997.
[05:21.59]It is near the entrance to Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.
[05:27.47]Michael Manfredi and Marion Gail Weiss designed the women's memorial.
[05:33.45]It is a place of glass, water and light.
[05:37.66]The memorial has a large wall that is shaped in a half-circle.
[05:42.96]In front of the memorial, 200 jets of water meet in a pool.
[05:48.97]The designers say this water fountain celebrates the combined strength of many individuals.
[05:56.88]Inside the memorial, the stories of women in wartime are cut into glass panels.
[06:04.80]The memorial also has information about military women on a computer.
[06:10.39]It includes names, pictures, service records and personal statements of about 250,000 military women.
[06:20.32]General Vaught says it was important for women in the military to be honored because their efforts have not been recognized. |