Education Center at The Wall

The Education Center at The Wall is an unmatched educational facility that will be built on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., near the Vietnam Veterans and Lincoln Memorials. It will tell the stories of the individuals who served and sacrificed in Vietnam and, in doing so, will teach visitors about the values embodied by all those who serve in all of America’s wars.

The centerpiece of the Center will be a Wall of Photos, showcasing pictures of the more than 58,000 whose names are on The Wall. Visitors to the Memorial feel the impact of seeing all those names together, as they walk past row after row of black granite panels with line after line of names. In the Center, visitors will experience those names individually—learning stories about their lives and seeing how those left behind remember their loved ones.

Remembrance is the theme for another exhibit, which will show some of the more than 100,000 items that have been placed at The Wall in tribute over the years. These items are often poignant, sometimes unusual and always personal. They give visitors a glimpse into the lives of those lost and how families have continued on without their loved ones.

Seeing how these families are altered is the best illustration of the true cost of war.

Other exhibits will help visitors—especially those too young to remember—learn some of the key dates of the Vietnam War.

The Center will teach visitors about the values embodied by all of our nation’s service members, values such as loyalty, duty, respect, service, honor, integrity and courage, and illustrate these values of service through the lens of the Vietnam War. But as they leave, visitors will be reminded that these characteristics have been with us since the early days of our nation. They will see images of people who served in all of America’s wars, from the Revolutionary War to Iraq and Afghanistan, reminding us that service to country is one of America’s enduring legacies.