Fw: 1998-11-10 VP Unveils a Vietnam Veterans Virtual Wall on the Internet

["kryz" <chrisharwig@hetnet.nl>]

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| Date: dinsdag 17 november 1998 16:12:00
| From: The White House
| To: Public-Distribution@pub.pub.whitehouse.gov
| Subject: 1998-11-10 VP Unveils a Vietnam Veterans Virtual Wall on the Internet
|
|
|                             THE WHITE HOUSE
|
|                      Office of the Vice President
| ________________________________________________________________________
| For Immediate Release                                  November 10, 1998
|
|
|
|              VICE PRESIDENT GORE UNVEILS A VIETNAM VETERANS
|                  "VIRTUAL WALL" ON THE INTERNET AS PART
|                  OF A NEW VETERAN'S EDUCATION INITIATIVE
|
|             Also, Highlights New World War II Veterans Stamps
|
|
|      Washington, DC -- Vice President Gore announced today the creation
| of a Vietnam veterans "virtual wall" as part of a new web site to enable
| users to search for names and hear personal remembrances of Vietnam
| veterans.
|
|      "For 15 years, people have come to the Vietnam Wall to run their
| hands across the names and remember those who never came home," Vice
| President Gore said.  "Now, anybody who can run their hands across a
| computer keyboard will be able to make contact with those names and
| learn even more -- that these names belong to people who were brothers
| and sons, husbands and wives, mothers and daughters and that their
| courage helped make our freedom possible."
|
|      The web site -- a joint project of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial
| Fund and Winstar Communications, Inc. -- will become available in two
| stages:
|
|      Starting Veterans' Day, users will be able to tap into a new
|      web site on which they can click onto a deceased veteran's name
|      and hear audio remembrances from family members or friends.
|
|      Starting January 1999, users will be able to walk up to an
|      on-line virtual wall that recreates the look and feel of the
|      Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall, run their hands over a
|      veteran's name as it appears on the actual memorial, and hear
|      audio remembrances from family members or friends.
|
|      The virtual wall is part of a nationwide program, The Young
| Americans Vietnam War Era Studies Project, to help educate students at
| over 17,000 American public and private high schools about the Vietnam
| War.
|
|      The project will include Vietnam-era high school curriculum guides
| that, among other things, will include an introduction to the Vietnam
| War; a look at the politics of the war; and information about those who
| served.  An Internet Education Center will focus on the historical,
| social, and political aspects of the war.
|
|      The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund also created a traveling replica
| of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, which is currently located in New
| York, to allow grieving survivors and families to view the memorial in
| their own communities.  On Veterans Day, the traveling exhibit will
| include kiosks to enable Americans to record their remembrances of the
| war for posting on the virtual wall.
|
|      Earlier today, the Vice President unveiled the U.S. Postal
| Services' Celebrate the Century stamp series that includes three new
| World War II-related stamps:
|
|      the "World War II" stamp that pays tribute to the 16 million
|      men and women who served and sacrificed in uniform during that
|      war;
|
|      the "Women Support War Effort" stamp that honors the
|      contributions of home front war workers, without whom
|      soldiers, sailors, pilots, and marines could not have achieved
|      victory; and
|
|      the "GI Bill 1994" stamp that salutes the legislation that
|      provided benefits for veterans.
|
|      The Vice President praised the American Battle Monuments Commission
| and the U.S. Postal Service for coming together to make these
| commemorative stamps available to the American public.
|
|                                     ###
|