Visitor Guides at the Wall

VISITOR GUIDE RESPONSIBILITIES
  • Help visitors find names on the Wall
  • Make rubbings of names on the Wall or help visitors do it
  • Be prepared to tell visitors some facts about the Wall
  • Help maintain a solemn and dignified environment near the Wall
  • "I came to see my son's name" is about the Visitor Guide task.

VISITOR GUIDES SHOULD KNOW

  • The order of names on the Wall
  • How to make name rubbings
  • A few simple facts about the Wall

THE ORDER OF NAMES ON THE WALL

  • The East Wall and West Wall are named for the alignment in Washington
  • No matter which way a Traveling Wall is set up, the "East Wall" in on the right
  • The panels are numbered from 1 in the center to 70 at the ends.
  • The names are in the order of death or incident that caused "missing" status.
  • Within a given day, the names are listed in alphaetical order.
  • The order of names goes down each panel, then to the top of the next panel.
  • Lines on each panel are counted from the top.
  • The last name on the East Wall is on panel E-70, May 28, 1968
  • The next name is on the opposite end of the Wall on panel W-70
  • The last name on the Wall is at the bottom of panel W-1, next to panel E-1.
  • When the Wall was built, there were 5 names on each line. Some now have 6.
  • If a man died after the war of an injury, his name is put as close as possible to names of others who died the same day.

A FEW FACTS ABOUT  THE WALL

  • The Wall in Washington, DC was built in 1982
  • There are now 58,261 names on the Wall
  • A few names have been added every year since the Wall was built
  • The Wall is maintained by the US National Park Service with your tax dollars
  • The correct name is Vietnam Veterans Memorial: it is not a "war" memorial
  • On the Wall in Washington, the date at the top of panel E-1 is 1959.
  • The first casualties are listed on panel E-1 (East), under the 1957 (AVTT Wall)
  • The date on the bottom of panel W-1 is 1975. Although US involvement in the war ended in 1973, some Marines were killed as South Vietnam fell in 1975.
  • More details are available on the web site named  The Virtual Wall®