Sometime in the mid-90’s, one of the traveling replicas of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial made its way to our hometown of Lafayette, Louisiana. My dad was retired from the Air Force by then, and had served during the Vietnam War, the wounds of that conflict still fresh for him. He knew a few of the names on the wall, soldiers killed in action during the devastating struggle half a world away, which divided the nation until its inglorious end in 1975. Seeing the replica was the closest that Pop or any of us had ever gotten to the monument until we visited the actual Vietnam Veterans Memorial on our family trip in 2000.

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial is truly one of the most moving spaces in Washington, evoking a conflict still fresh in the public’s consciousness. And the memorial itself, while now one of the most visited and admired monuments in the city, it was incredibly controversial when it was built.

When the design, submitted by 21 year old architecture student Mya Lin, was selected in 1981, critics thought the simple memorial – an angled, sloping wall of polished black granite, etched with the names of the more than 50,000 American soldiers who lost their lives in the war – was simply a “gash in the dirt” and not impressive enough to properly commemorate such a tragic event. After some compromises, the memorial was eventually built, and has become something more evocative than simply a war memorial, but a sacred shrine to the men and women who served half a world away. Veterans, including Pop, treat the site with incredible reverence, collecting etchings of the names of their comrades in arms, leaving mementoes and notes behind, and reflecting on what each name – the loss of an American soldier – means. Every time I’ve visited, a noticeable silence hangs over the site, more than any other monument on the National Mall.

As a volunteer guide on the Mall, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial was the one site where I never chose to work. I instead deferred to the many volunteers who were alive during the War, several of whom served, who could convey the meaning of the Wall better than I ever could have hoped. Their stories of friends lost, of visitors who have come to pay their respects, are themselves a living part of the memorial.

Until the creation of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, war memorials in the city were dedicated to, and often in the likeness of, the military leaders and heroes of campaigns or battles, like Ulysses S. Grant, Winfield Scott or Phil Sheridan. Part of what made the Wall controversial and revolutionary was that it was one of the first to memorialize the common soldier, listing the fallen no matter their rank. Near the monument, two sets of statues of soldiers, which were part of the compromise to allow the Wall itself to be built, seem superfluous; the Wall, which silently draws visitors in as they walk down into the angle of the memorial, more than effectively conveys the significance of the sacrifice of the men and women listed and those who survived. Much like the FDR Memorial, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial allows the visitor to slowly flow through, studying the names, quietly coming to grips with the incredibly loss of life as they walk down the gradual slope, deeper into the heart of the monument. Since it was built, newer monuments in the city and around the country reflect the theme of memorializing the common soldier rather than the larger-than-life generals.

While the monument, like all the others on the Mall, is usually packed with visitors, evenings provide some of the best opportunities for quiet reflection at the site.  Dimly lit and mostly void of any other visitors, the memorial after dark possesses a haunting quality; each name glows in the spotlights, the brilliantly lit Washington Monument, reflecting in the polished black granite. Travelling replicas of the memorial provide individuals who cannot travel to Washington with the opportunity to sense the power of the Wall, but the real Vietnam Veterans Memorial remains one of the most powerful monuments in the city, so much more than just a simple gash in the ground.