Vietnam Vets center wins approval

[Soldier4Christ]

A sprawling, underground Vietnam Veterans Memorial visitor center has won approval for the National Mall.

The 25,000-square-foot center will be the first project on the Mall since the National World War II Memorial was built in 2004. It will be constructed underground between the Lincoln Memorial and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial wall.

"This was a long time in coming," Jan C. Scruggs, president and founder of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, said after a federal commission approved the project Thursday.

The center could include a movie theater, a three-dimensional battle scene, mementos left at the memorial, and a wall where pictures of fallen soldiers will be projected on their birthdays, Scruggs said.

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund has raised $25 million for the center, a quarter of the $100-million estimated cost. The sponsors expect to select a design by the end of the year and plan to get final approval for construction early next year.

Backers of the project say the center is needed to supplement the understated Vietnam Veterans Memorial wall, which was dedicated in 1982 and consists of simple granite panels that list more than 58,000 names of the dead and missing.

But the visitor center was opposed by those seeking to conserve the Lincoln Memorial's grounds. And some planners worry the center will open the way for similar additions to other memorials.

Legislation was passed by Congress in 2003 that exempted the center from the Mall's "reserve" area, where new construction is banned.

To preserve the Mall's aesthetics, design guidelines require that no portion of the visitor center can be visible from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial or surrounding streets and no new parking can be constructed.

The center also must have a single entrance for visitors and service personnel, and the lighting must be subtle.

Not all Vietnam War veterans like the project. Ray Saikus flew in from Cleveland to tell the planning commission that an underground "bunker or tunnel" is insensitive to veterans who fought enemies underground.

"It will be more a tribute to the Viet Cong," Saikus said.