Ceremony to honor state’s Vietnam War service members

From Issaquah Press.com: Ceremony to honor state’s Vietnam War service members

State leaders plan to gather Friday to honor fallen Vietnam War service members from Washington.

The event is the statewide kickoff of a national Call for Photos campaign to collect the photographs of all of the service members memorialized on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C.

Officials need photos of 571 photos of Washington service members. Once collected, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund plans to display all of the photos in The Education Center at The Wall, a multimillion dollar learning facility planned for the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

The groundbreaking is expected to occur in November 2012. Plans call for the museum to feature the faces and stories of the 58,272 men and women on the memorial, including the 1,049 from Washington.

The kickoff starts at 10 a.m. Friday in the Columbia Room, State Legislative Building, 416 Sid Snyder S.W. Ave., Olympia.

Organizers encourage people to bring photos of people memorialized on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial to the event.

Speakers include John Lee, state Department of Veterans Affairs director, and Mike Gregoire, first gentleman, and Jan Scruggs, Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund founder and president.