vietnam veterans memorial fund

The panels that make up the Vietnam Veterans Memorial each represent a moment in time. Some moments are measured in years but for one of those panels, its beginning to end lasted only eight days. It could have been any eight days in the Vietnam War, but this panel tells the story of a secret mission in Laos, rising tensions back home, and the incredible story of a Medal of Honor recipient.

More than 400,000 items have been left at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in remembrance, in longing, and in tribute. Learn how those items became a museum collection of the National Park Service, and hear from its first curator — a Vietnam veteran who would perform that labor of love for the better part of three decades.

War interrupts everything normal in life… except for love. In this episode you’ll hear stories of people falling in love, people keeping love alive, and love keeping people alive.

On January 30, 1968, North Vietnamese and Viet Cong troops launched an offensive that is widely considered a pivotal moment in the war. Vietnam War specialist Dr. Erik Villard sheds a historian’s light on the Tet Offensive.

The siege at Khe Sanh began on January 21, 1968. For 77 days, 6,000 Americans — mostly Marines — held their positions against an all-out assault by more than 30,000 enemy troops. Hear personal stories from two men who survived the siege and then returned, decades later, to Khe Sanh.

Surprises are an essential part of the Christmas experience. But in wartime, the surprises aren’t often joyful. In this episode we’ll hear stories of Christmas from people who survived the war in Vietnam, and from people whose losses nearly 50 years ago have colored every Christmas since.

Music of the Vietnam era had the power to unite and divide, to support and protest, to remind those in-country of home, and to help those at home begin to understand what being in-country meant. It provides a soundtrack that can teach us a lot about the war, the era, and the people who lived it. Michael Croan interviews Doug Bradley, one of the authors of "We Gotta Get Out Of This Place: The Soundtrack of the Vietnam War."

November 14, 1965 marked a pivotal moment in U.S. involvement in Vietnam. Elements of the Army's 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) entered the first major land battle of the war at landing zones X-Ray and Albany, which would turn out to be proving grounds for a whole new kind of warfare. Hear three personal perspectives from men who survived.

More than three million men —and 11,000 women —served in the Vietnam War, and the 58,000 who died there are forever memorialized on The Wall in Washington DC. But how many came home, only to die later as a result of their service? And how do we honor these unsung heroes, whose war wounds took decades to become fatal?

Army medics and Navy corpsmen (often serving in Marine Corps units) were the enlisted “first responders” of the Vietnam War. They saved countless lives, often at great risk to themselves. In this episode, we bring you two stories from members of the 1st Cavalry’s 15th Medical Battalion.