In 2001, Pearl and I decided it was high time we made a pilgrimage to the Vietnam Memorial and the other sacred sites around DC.  Early the next morning we left our hotel and drove down to the Tidal Basin. As you said; the memorial was inspiring, the fog on the Reflecting Pool had just lifted, the light was muted and the black granite glistened with dew. One of the attendants gave us a sheet of paper and a pencil and after a moment we began the search for PFC Andrew Pierce. Eighteen and a half years old when he was killed, he was the friend of our oldest son and the son of old and dear friends. He had spent may nights with us, he joined the Army after graduation about the same time our son went off to West Virginia Wesleyan. His mother had died of cancer just a few years before our visit, after his death, and his father CWO Andrew Pierce, Sr., had died in 1999 also of cancer, eligible to be buried in Arlington, he elected to be interred along side his wife in the Pierce Cemetery in Alderson. Andy, Jr. lies with his comrades. 

We made a tracing of Andy's name engraved into the granite, intending to give it to his grandmother, when we got home we found she had died while we were gone. I have it sitting here before me and as always tears come.