American Notes MEMORIALS

Since its opening in 1982, Washington's Viet Nam Veterans Memorial has served as a stark scroll of remembrance, recording the names of 58,156 who died in that divisive war. Last week, as the U.S. honored its heroes on Veterans' Day, it was revealed that three men listed on the monument are still alive.

According to a Pentagon spokesman, Army Privates Robert Bedker and Willard Craig were incorrectly listed as killed in action through data-coding errors. A third man, Darrall Lausch of Baroda, Mich., spotted his name on a list of the dead in a local newspaper. Lausch and Craig are both recorded as killed in action on Nov. 19, 1966, the date they were wounded, and appear two lines , apart on the memorial. The names, which are etched in black granite, cannot be removed without damaging the structure.