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American Morning

Six Names Added to Vietnam Veterans Memorial in D.C.

Aired May 03, 2001 - 11:35   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Want to go up to Washington, D.C. They're adding more names to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

Let's get more on that from our Jeanne Meserve -- Jeanne.

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Daryn, it is officially named the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, but everyone knows it as "The Wall." And more people visit it each year than any other memorial in the city.

In its simplicity and its power, it is no like other monument, just as the war it commemorates was like no other in U.S. history. When The Wall was dedicated in 1982, it contained the names of 57,939 Americans killed or missing in the conflict. But names are added periodically. Six more names were added today, three decades after the last shots were fired. The additions come as people die from wounds suffered during the war or when the Defense Department reclassifies a death as a war casualty. Experts flown in from Denver work carefully on the hard, black granite panels.

The new names must look like the old names: the same depth, the same width. No name appears any more important than the other names on the wall. They are all dead Americans. They all represent dead dreams. And today, the list of names grew to 58,226, including Billy Smith (ph), whose brother stood and watched and grieved.

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