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  Notes

  1. Killed in action

  2. Died on active duty

  3. Wounded in action

  4. Served in Vietnam

  5. Served overseas (other)

  6. Served in U.S.

Statue of the Three Soldiers

The Three Soldiers statue - also known as The Three Servicemen - is the result of the controversy surrounding Maya Ying Lin's design of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. In stark simplicity, The Wall presents the names of 58,178 fallen U.S. soldiers on its polished stone surface. Some veterans and their political supporters felt The Wall was "a black gash of shame" or a "giant tombstone." It was too abstract a design for others who wanted a more heroic, life-like depiction of a soldier. Located a short distance away from the Wall, the statue was added in 1984 as a more traditional component to the Vietnam Memorial, two years after The Wall's completion.

Designed by the late Frederick Hart, it depicts three servicemen, identifiable as Caucasian, African-American, and Hispanic. The men are wearing Vietnam War era uniforms and could be from any branch of the U.S. military at that time. Interpretations of the work vary widely. Some say the troops have the "thousand yard stare" of combat soldiers. Others say the troops are on patrol and begin looking for their own names as they come upon the Memorial Wall.

Hart's goal was to create a sculpture which was a moving evocation of the experience and service of the Vietnam veteran. He described it as follows:

Vietnam Women's Memorial

When Diane Carlson Evans, a former army nurse in Vietnam, first saw the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, she felt something was missing. Her efforts to highlight the service of women in Vietnam were rewarded on November 11, 1993, when the Vietnam Women's Memorial was dedicated.

The sculpture, designed by Texas native Glenna Goodacre, depicts three uniformed women with a wounded soldier. While one nurse comforts the soldier, another kneels in thought or prayer. The third looks to the skies - for help from a medevac helicopter, or perhaps from a higher power. Goodacre left the interpretation open so people could read into it whatever they wished.

An estimated 11,500  women served our country in Vietnam, ninety percent of whom served in the health care professions, nursing and tending to the casualties of war. The women's war was different from the men's - instead of exploding in the jungle, it blew up in the mind. Surrounded by death, the nurses had to shut down emotionally. They could not show their feelings to the soldiers they were trying to heal. Like the Vietnam Wall, the Vietnam Women's Memorial has brought healing.

Nurses spoke of the horror of war and the difficulty of talking to their friends about what they had seen. One said that in only a year, she had left behind her youth and her innocence. Soldiers remembered the nurses with love and affection - the kind smile, the gentle touch, the soft words that eased their pain. Parents spoke with gratitude of the nurses who had sent their sons home to them.