Veterans' Efforts Honored Online

In honor of Veterans Day on Saturday, which commemorated Americans who served in the nation's many wars, the city of Berkeley encouraged residents to view its own online memorial to fallen soldiers.

Renowned 1960s folk singer and anti-war protester, Country Joe McDonald, created Berkeley's On-Line Vietnam Veterans Memorial - an effort to honor veterans, whose sacrifices to war, he said, are often forgotten as people dwell more on the tragedy of the event.

McDonald said he created the Web site in order to bring the tragedy of Vietnam War closer to home.

"The idea was to put a human face on each name so you can see what they were like as babies, teenagers and adults and that way it makes war a more personal experience for you," he said.

The site consists of 29 pages dedicated to each Berkeley resident who died during the Vietnam War. Each page contains family memorabilia, such as photos, pictures, letters and entries from family members of the deceased veterans.

"I don't think anyone had really talked to the people very much about their family members being killed in the (Vietnam) War," McDonald said.

According to McDonald, the Berkeley Web site, located at www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/vvm, is the first interactive war memorial in the world.

"It's very important to act with the memorial and I thought that maybe it would allow people to get closure and healing from the war," McDonald said. "I made this memorial so you can visit it and you can leave your comments on each page. My idea was to build an electronic memorial because it could be visited by anyone anywhere."

He added that the site provides an outlet for visitors to connect to a war they might not otherwise have known about.

"The Web site is quite interesting because the comments are of all different kinds - positive, negative, sincere, sad and depressed," he said. "It's hard to read through pages and not cry and get emotional."

Creators of the site said their intent for creating it was to make people remember the Berkeley veterans who died during the Vietnam war.

"Our belief is that in remembering we can promote understanding," the site said. "Whether the reader simply skims the pages or reads every word, the impact may be quite powerful. The reader should keep in mind that the power is not in remembering the war, but in remembering the people."

According to Councilmember Kriss Worthington, the site is important because Vietnam veterans were less celebrated by Americans after the war.

"After the Vietnam War ended, many people pointed out that unlike previous wars where huge celebrations were held to honor veterans from World War I and World War II, when Vietnam War veterans came back they were not favorably received because people in the country were against the war," Worthington said. "We honor people of other wars so why not honor the Vietnam veterans?"

McDonald said he encourages everyone to look at the Web site, particularly students.

"I thought that it would be educational," he said. "I would invite any students to visit the memorial and check it out because most of the people who died in the war were of the age of high school and college students. The average age of those veterans who died was 19."

The Web site is currently only one of three interactive war memorials in the world.

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