Boots, flowers, and flags at an American memorial

“Please everyone, I need your undivided attention.” The guide gathered everyone just short of one of the entrances of the memorial. He waited until everyone was quiet, and then spoke: “You are now at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, where over fifty eight thousand names of those who were killed or missing in action are remembered. Those who are missing in action have a cross next to their name, while those killed have a diamond next to their name. The Vietnam War was the first television war, and those images of war caused this country to become bitterly divided. For those men and women who survived the war, they became the focus of the vitriol of anti war groups when they came home, calling them all sorts of names like “Murderers” and “Baby Killers”. How could Americans, who had served their country, seen horrors of friends and soldiers being killed, return home and hoping to find solace and peace, instead be insulted and treated as enemies? Those returning veterans felt like their country had abandoned them. This memorial, to all those who did not come home, serves as a place of healing between the surviving veterans and their country. To honor all those who served in Vietnam, you yourself are going to find the name of one of those who didn’t get to come home. ”

 

Your tablet suddenly buzzed. As your guide continued to explain how to find a name on the wall, you peeked at the tablet. It had the following instructions:

Send an email to the email address you found earlier (aeigamemaster@gmail.com). In the subject line, enter the name of your school and the word Vietnam. For example, if your school is Christchurch Middle School, you would enter on the subject line:

Christchurch Middle School Vietnam

There is no need for text in the body of the message. Send it and wait for the reply.
Once you get the reply, find him and honor him.

1. Click on the link to open the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund Website found at LINK#1(opens in a new tab).
 
2. Once on the website, select advanced search.
 
3. Enter the first name, last name, and the state that your school is in, and then hit search.
 
4. Look at the photo of this hero. This isn’t just a name anymore. This is an actual person. Select read profile. Read some of the remembrances.
 
5. Make a note of the panel number, line number, and hometown (home of record). The panel number has a number followed by either the letter E or W. Make sure you include the E or W for the panel number.
 
6. Click on the link to open an image of the Vietnam Wall found at LINK#2(opens in a new tab)
 
7. On this website, hover over the tools icon near the top right. Select Find In Image.
 
9. Enter the first, middle (if any), and last name and hit find. (Note that if there are multiple matches, scroll through each one until you find the one that matches).
 
10. This is this hero’s name on the wall. If you were really at the wall in Washington DC, you could have left something there to remember this hero.
 
11. The answer to enter below is the panel number, line number and hometown (home of record).
 
The panel number is 2 digits, followed by a letter. Examples are 02E, 73W etc.
 
The line number is 3 digits long. Examples are 002, 045 and 132.
 
Hometown should be all combined if there is more than one word. Examples are Phoenix, Newyork, Sanjuancapistrano.
 
So if the panel is 9E, the line number is 17, and the hometown is Wide Three Forks, the answer entered below would be 09e017widethreeforks.