V I E T N A M   V E T E R A N S   M E M O R I A L

Washington D.C.

I'm nearing the tallest section of the memorial. At the tallest section you'll find 137 lines of names, each line containing 5 to 6 names. Doing the math, these large panels each contain an upwards of 822 individual names.

I capture this visitor perhaps touching the name of a loved one. The National Park Service allows visitors to make pencil rubbings of the names.

Since the memorial's dedication in 1982, additional names have been added to the memorial as a result of expanding the geographic criteria to encompass areas outside of the war zone. Veterans have been added to the Wall in other ways as well, including those who subsequently die many years later of injuries relating to their tour of duty.

While browsing through the listings, I stumble upon the entry for Charles Hugh Crawford. Charles was a Navy medic from Batavia, OH who died at the age of 26 on May 29, 1967 in Quang Tri, South Korea. This listing is one of the more forthcoming ones, for it contains numerous remembrances which reveal much about him.

After running through a deadly hail of enemy fire and administering first aid to a fellow soldier, Charles was killed in action when he attempted to move the casualty to safer grounds. For his heroics, he was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross, the Navy's 2nd highest award ranking, "for extraordinary heroism in connection with military operations against an opposing armed force." Charles was also awarded the Silver Star and the Purple Heart.