WASHINGTON, D.C. (LEX 18) — Vietnam War veterans on this year's Honor Flight made an emotional stop at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, where all 63 participants served during the conflict that defined a generation.
The black granite wall, etched with 58,000 names of fallen service members, served as both a destination and a journey into the past for these veterans. Staff members helped guide them to specific panels, calling out coordinates to locate the names of those who didn't make it home.
"A first cousin was killed in Cambodia. He was shot down, he was a helicopter pilot in Cambodia," said Gary Faulkner, a veteran searching for his relative's name among the thousands etched in stone.
The statistics behind the memorial tell a sobering story. Of the men killed during the Vietnam War, t