Vietnam Memorial Turns 25

The Wall was designed by architect Maya Lin and bears names of those killed or missing during the war. It was dedicated Nov. 13, 1982, with ceremonies and an emotional parade of tens of thousands of veterans from across the country.

There were initially 57,939 names inscribed on the memorial. But 317 names have been added for various reasons, and the total now is 58,256, according to the memorial fund.

The dedication marked a time of healing and a sense among Vietnam veterans that they were at last being thanked for their service. "It's corny and a cliche that there were no parades" when veterans returned from Vietnam, historian and Vietnam veteran Marc Leepson said recently. "But there were no parades."

In the past 25 years, the Wall has become one of the most visited memorials in Washington.

"The wall has matured, as have veterans," Scruggs, the parade's grand marshal, said yesterday.

Jack G. Devine, vice president of Vietnam Veterans of America and the parade's chief sponsor, said: "We're getting older. Most of us are retiring. But when we look back over the 25 years since this dedication, we see that we've accomplished a great deal.

"I think that the greatest accomplishment is that we have bonded as brothers and sisters, and supported each other through this whole time," he said.

There was still a sense of that yesterday.

During ceremonies before the parade, Elizabeth Starrenburg of Augusta, Ga., who was wearing a 1st Cavalry lapel pin, approached Edward Times of Baton Rouge, who was wearing a jacket with the division patch and "Ia Drang" embroidered on the back.

Perhaps, she said, Times had known her first husband, Glenn A. Kennedy, who had fought in the battle and had been killed later in the war. Times, 64, said he thought he might have. They embraced. Starrenburg said whenever she sees a 1st Cavalry patch, "It draws me."

Nearby stood Russell Adams, 66, of Leesport, Pa., who was shot in the head during the Ia Drang battle and has been disabled on his right side ever since.

He'd been a machine gunner and now worked as a farmer. He wore a black glove on his right hand and took off his white hat during a patriotic song.

Adams said he is at peace with his wounds. No matter what happens in life, he said, "you've got to deal with it."

He'd been driven to the parade by a friend and said it felt good to be there. "It's good to be alive," he said.

James Stewart, 61, an optometrist from Montrose, Mich., carried the red flag with a black dog's head he had made to denote those who were Air Force dog handlers. He served in Vietnam in 1967 and '68 and handled a German shepherd that had been trained to kill. "They were a weapon, just like shooting a gun," he said.

He said there had long been a misperception of the Vietnam veteran as a misfit. "The majority of us came back, got on with our life," he said. Vietnam veterans are "doctors. they're lawyers. They're investment counselors. They're all kinds of stuff."

As the parade got underway, Marine Corps veteran Walt Henriksen, 59, of Binghamton, N.Y., set out on his motorized wheelchair with his grandson, Walter Beers, 8, on board.

Henriksen was wounded near Khe San in April 1969. "Friendly fire," he said, an errant mortar round. He can move his legs, he said, but has no feeling in them.

He said he attended the dedication 25 years ago. Since then, "I think people have made up to us [for] a lot of the bad things that happened when the war first started," he said. "People are much more aware of the Vietnam veterans and their plight."

Asked if he had any regrets, he paused.

"Yeah, I guess I do," he said. "But I would go again."

Staff writer Allison Klein contributed to this report.