New Jersey Vietnam Veterans Memorial
Encyclopedia
Holmdel Township, New Jersey
Holmdel Township is a township in Monmouth County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the township population was 16,773. Holmdel Township was formed by an Act of the New Jersey Legislature on February 23, 1857, from portions of Raritan Township .Holmdel is a suburb of...
, New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
, honors those from that state who served in the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
, especially the 1,561 men and one woman who were killed or missing in action. The design for the memorial was created by Hien Nguyen in 1988, and construction was officially completed on May 7, 1995, when it was dedicated. The Memorial is located on the grounds of the Garden State Arts Center (now known as the PNC Bank Arts Center
PNC Bank Arts Center
The PNC Bank Arts Center is a modern amphitheatre located in Holmdel Township, New Jersey, USA. About 17,500 people can occupy the amphitheater; there are 7,000 seats and the grass area can hold about 10,500 people. Concerts are from May through September featuring 35–45 different events of...
). It is open 24 hours a day, all days of the year, free of charge. Guided tours by volunteer New Jersey veterans are available for groups.
The memorial is an open-air circular pavilion, 200 feet in diameter. Around the entire outside are 366 8 feet (2.4 m) black granite panels, each one representing a day the year. The casualties are listed according to what day they were killed. In the middle of the circular pavilion is a red oak, the state tree of New Jersey. This tree provides shade for three statues, one of a dying soldier, one of a nurse tending to his wounds, and one soldier standing at their sides. They represent those who died, the women in the war, and those who came back safely, respectively.
The stone panels are arranged so they are about 12 feet higher than the inner courtyard. The ten stairways and two ramps leading up to them intersect, as the designer did not want the pathways for the handicapped separate. These ramps are arranged in a double helix, each one ascending to the top in half of the circle. The two entrances to the memorial are tunnels, symbolizing the trip the soldiers took to Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
. Also, the designer made the memorial oriented so that the May Seventh panel, the day the war ended, points towards Vietnam.
The Vietnam Era Educational Center is adjacent to the memorial, and is the first of its kind in the country. According to one of the officials here, the state asked the designer of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial
Vietnam Veterans Memorial
The Vietnam Veterans Memorial is a national memorial in Washington, D.C. It honors U.S. service members of the U.S. armed forces who fought in the Vietnam War, service members who died in service in Vietnam/South East Asia, and those service members who were unaccounted for during the War.Its...
in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
what she would do over again given the chance to redesign the memorial. She said that, without an educational center explaining the war and turmoil in the country at that time, a memorial could be meaningless to passerby. This is the rationale for the existence of the facility. In 2010, the Vietnam Era Educational Center was changed to the Vietnam Era Museum & Educational Center.
No one is buried on the memorial site, except for the original owners of the land. The property was given to the state to build on, and the owners only asked that they continue to be able to be buried here.