U.S. casualties from OEF and OIF will be honored at Vietnam Wall

U.S. casualties from Afghanistan, Iraq will be honored at Vietnam Wall
The Washington Post
Michael E. Ruane
April 6, 2014

WASHINGTON — The first name that will be read at the ceremony on Memorial Day weekend is that of Evander Earl Andrews.

A small-town boy, he left his parents’ home in central Maine, joined the Air Force, and on Oct. 10, 2001, became the first military member reported killed in the post 9/11 wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

His mother, Mary, 71, said on Friday that she never thought his death would be followed by 6,700 more.

On May 24, Andrews’ name and the names of the others killed in the recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will be read aloud chronologically for the first time in a tribute at the Vietnam Wall, according to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund.

The ceremony will open at 9 a.m. on the east knoll of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, and the reading will run from about 10 a.m. to about 5:40 p.m., the fund said.

Those interested can register to read names starting at 8 a.m. on April 14 at Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund. People will be asked to read 15 names at a time.