CHAPTER CHATTER
The Official Newsletter of the
Shenandoah Valley Chapter #313
Korean War Veterans Association
We Need Your Help to Build the Korean War Veterans Memorial Wall of Remembrance!
(Editor’s Note: This article reprinted in entirety from letter submitted by the Korean War Veterans Memorial Foundation.)
The Korean War Veterans Memorial Foundation is a non-profit, tax-exempt organization entrusted with the responsibility to ensure the Korean War Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., will be maintained in perpetuity. The Memorial honors the sacrifices of the 5.8 million Americans who served in the U.S. armed services during the duration of the Korean War.
In October 2016, legislation was passed in tasking the Foundation with raising the funds necessary to build and establish a
Wall of Remembrance to be incorporated with the existing Memorial. The Wall will become the permanent home to the names of the 36,574 American service members and over 8,000 Korean Augmentation to the United States Army (KATUSA) who gave their lives defending the people of South Korea from aggression and ensuring their freedom.
The projected construction costs to build the Wall of Remembrance is $31 million and financial support is dependent upon private donations from individual donors and major corporations from around the world. The overall success of this project will focus on creating a detailed and highly disciplined approach to the management of significant donor prospects. This momentous endeavor to build the Wall of Remembrance will ensure the brave U.S. Military personnel and members of the South Korean military, who served in South Korean and U.S. units during the war, will be remembered for generations. It will also serve to educate the cost of freedom to the four million visitors of the Memorial each year.
The current Memorial has as a column of 19 stainless steel sculptures representing the totality of American Soldiery (Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, and Coast Guard), of those who served in the war and defended South Korea.