Air Force name added to ‘The Wall’

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Jim Varhegyi
  • Air Force Print News
WASHINGTON (AFPN) --  The name of an Air Force staff sergeant was among six added to Vietnam Veteran's Memorial here May 13.

Staff Sgt. Donald S. Carson, a San Francisco native, was injured in a military aircraft accident in Thailand on April 12, 1963, and died a few days later. His name was omitted from “The Wall” until now because of a clerical oversight.

There are now 58,235 names inscribed on the monument.

Each year before Memorial Day, officials representing the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund hire stone workers to inscribe additional names on the black granite monument. The workers also update the status of military members previously believed to be missing or killed in action once their status has been confirmed.

A diamond preceding a person's name on the monument indicates that he or she was killed in action. A cross preceding the name indicates a member's status as missing in action.

To update a person's status the workers sandblast a diamond over the cross, but leave the tips of the cross visible, indicating that his or her status has been confirmed as killed in action.

This year, the names of 26 military members were updated to killed in action. Among them was Col. Robert Allen Govan, from Washington, who was declared MIA on April, 1, 1967.