The era represented by that memorial was a poignant time in America and one that affects us to this day. Like the wall, the CD contains the names of the 58,196 American soldiers who died or are missing in action from that conflict. At the wall you search with your eyes, but the CD lets you enter a name. The program displays and lets you print out the name along with hometown, rank, service, date of birth and date of casualty. It also shows the location of the name on the wall itself.
Video clips show the construction of the wall and the chiseling of the names into the granite.
There is even a section on the competition that led to the selection of Maya Lin's design over 1,420 others. As for World War II, most of us grew up seeing documentaries on TV about the heroism of our soldiers fighting nefarious enemies. But there is plenty of material for anyone who wants to explore the war and its origins through maps, themes, events or interactive videos. The disc has 45 minutes of video, most from the National Archives, and biographies of key players. The map feature makes it easy to pinpoint what happened in a specific country.