Vietnam Veterans Memorial

At noon on Sunday, a poignant ceremony began at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial on the Mall in Washington. Continuing around the clock, a thousand volunteers from across the country have taken turns reading the names inscribed on the polished black granite walls that in the past 10 years have become the most-visited memorial in the nation's capital. The roll call ends this morning at 9 o'clock, but the act of calling out the name of each American who died in uniform in Vietnam helps to symbolize not just the enormity of the loss any war represents, but also the healing power of memory.

TWO DECADES after the United States ended its tortured engagement in Vietnam, the memorials to this country's military dead in that war are still rising in solemn remembrance.On a blustery, overcast Veterans Day morning, Baltimore County broke ground by the Old Courthouse in Towson for a black granite tower and a small fountain pool that will honor the 123 men from the county who gave their lives in the Vietnam conflict.Their names will be carved on a marble marker on the six-foot tower, with a nearby stone bench for visitors to reflect on the monument.

Many Memorial Day observances are scheduled for the Baltimore area today. Among them:* ANNE ARUNDEL COUNTY* 9 a.m. Annapolis. Parade, starting at Amos Garrett Boulevard. To National Cemetery on West Street for services, then down West Street, through downtown to U.S. Naval Academy Cemetery for services, out to Memorial Circle at City Dock, more services. West Street, College Avenue and Randall Street will be closed from 8:45 a.m. to 10 a.m.* BALTIMORE* 10:45 a.m., West Baltimore. American Legion services at Baltimore National Cemetery on Frederick Avenue.

Honor U.S. war veterans Friday at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia. The annual Veterans Day event, taking place at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, features a wreath-laying ceremony at the tomb and memorial service in the amphitheater. President Bush is scheduled to lay the wreath. Throughout the ceremony, a military band will perform patriotic music. In addition to the Arlington National Cemetery event, there will be Veterans Day commemorations in Washington at the World War II Memorial at 8 a.m., at the Vietnam Women's Memorial at 8 a.m. and 2 p.m., at the African American Civil War Memorial at 11 a.m., at the U.S. Navy Memorial at 1 p.m. and at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial at 1 p.m. Veterans Day is celebrated on Nov. 11, the date that World War I ended in 1918.

WASHINGTON -- They are there. You have to stand close and almost put your nose against the walls of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, but the cracks are there.They look like tiny rivers running across the vast black marble expanse. About the width of three human hairs, you can barely feel them if you run your finger over them.But Jan Scruggs, the former Army infantry corporal responsible for getting the $7 million memorial built, is worried."It's unlikely that the cracks would cause one of the [memorial's]

At the height of the war in Vietnam, the names of American soldiers held captive or missing in action were engraved on metal bracelets as a remembrance of their suffering. Nearly 5 million of the bracelets, which bear a soldier's name, rank and date of loss, were sold in the early 1970s. Three decades later, many Americans still wonder about the servicemen named on the "POW-MIA" bracelets tucked away in dresser drawers or collecting dust in jewelry boxes. "It's amazing after this many years how people will break up when talking about the bracelets," says Ann Mills Griffin, executive director of the National League of Families, who still wears one to honor her brother, Navy Cmdr.

Fifty-three years after her husband disappeared over the TC Himalayas, Doris Ramos Stepanovich dedicated a headstone yesterday to the memory of U.S. Army Air Corps 1st Lt. Frank Miguel Ramos Jr."It makes it all the more real to see a plaque with Frank's name on it, lying in the ground," Stepanovich said as she laid flowers on the stone of her husband. "He's never had a funeral and I'm afraid he never may, but this was just beautiful."Stepanovich was among the three Maryland families that dedicated bronze markers at Dulaney Valley Memorial Gardens in Timonium to relatives missing in action -- one of many services held in the Baltimore area to honor Americans who died in combat.

It is a cold and blustery morning in Washington, D.C., and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial is as silent as a tomb.A middle-aged couple stand there.The man is heavy-set and tough. He wears a lumberman's jacket and has the weathered face of a working man. The woman is dressed as though for church. She wears heels and she has pinned a corsage to the front of her dark woolen overcoat."This is for my eldest boy," explains the woman quietly as she kneels and lays a small wreath at the foot of the wall.

When the Vietnam Veterans Memorial was dedicated 10 years ago this fall, the wounds of the Vietnam War were still raw. The memorial itself, which supporters hoped would become a symbol of national reconciliation, spurred a torrent of criticism when the design was first unveiled.Among the critics was Ross Perot, who contributed $160,000 to help underwrite the design competition only to denounce the winning entry as a "trench." The critics were mollified only with the addition to the site of a flag and a statue of three servicemen.