Virtual Vietnam Wall Opens

Last week the Virtual Vietnam Wall opened online, a joint venture between the National Archives and footnote.com. As well as allowing friends, family and former comrades to leave online tributes to the fallen, it links names to historical documents, photos andcasualty reports to offer an experience that’s fuller and richer and decidedly different than the real thing in Washington, D.C.   It was opened without a great deal of fanfare, but alsooffers the chance to visit and remember to the many who can’t physically make the trip to the East Coast, as well as for groups of veterans to visit it together.   The image of the virtualwall was assembled from 6,301 images, and contains 58,320 names. Of those, eight are women, and 2,056 are listed as “body not recovered.” The average age of the dead was 22.8 years.