I 
110TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 1172 
To require the Secretary of Defense to report to Congress regarding the 
requirements applicable to the inscription of veterans’ names on the 
memorial wall of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
FEBRUARY 16, 2007 
Ms. MILLENDER-MCDONALD introduced the following bill; which was referred 
to the Committee on Armed Services 
A BILL 
To require the Secretary of Defense to report to Congress 
regarding the requirements applicable to the inscription 
of veterans’ names on the memorial wall of the Vietnam 
Veterans Memorial. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Fairness to All Viet-
nam Veterans Act’’. 
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SEC. 2. STUDY AND REPORT ON REQUIREMENTS FOR IN-
SCRIPTION OF VETERANS’ NAMES ON MEMO-
RIAL WALL OF VIETNAM VETERANS MEMO-
RIAL. 
(a) FINDINGS.—Congress finds as follows: 
(1) Public Law 96–297 (94 Stat. 827) author-
ized the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, Inc., (in 
this section referred to as the ‘‘Memorial Fund’’) to 
construct a memorial ‘‘in honor and recognition of 
the men and women of the Armed Forces of the 
United States who served in the Vietnam war’’. 
(2) The Memorial Fund determined that the 
most fitting tribute to those who served in the Viet-
nam war would be to permanently inscribe the 
names of the members of the Armed Forces who 
died during the Vietnam war, or who remained miss-
ing at the conclusion of the war, on a memorial wall. 
(3) The Memorial Fund relied on the Depart-
ment of Defense to compile the list of individuals 
whose names would be inscribed on the memorial 
wall and the criteria for inclusion on such list. 
(4) The Memorial Fund established procedures 
under which mistakes and omissions in the inscrip-
tion of names on the memorial wall could be cor-
rected. 
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(5) Under such procedures, the Department of 
Defense established eligibility requirements that 
must be met before the Memorial Fund will make 
arrangements for the name of a veteran to be in-
scribed on the memorial wall. 
(6) The Department of Defense determines the 
eligibility requirements and has periodically modified 
such requirements. 
(7) As of February 1981, in order for the name 
of a veteran to be eligible for inscription on the me-
morial wall, the veteran must have— 
(A) died in Vietnam between November 1, 
1955, and December 31, 1960; 
(B) died in a specified geographic combat 
zone on or after January 1, 1961; 
(C) died as a result of physical wounds 
sustained in such combat zone; or 
(D) died while participating in, or pro-
viding direct support to, a combat mission im-
mediately en route to or returning from such 
combat zone. 
(8) Public Law 106–214 (114 Stat. 335) au-
thorizes the American Battle Monuments Commis-
sion to provide for the placement of a plaque within 
the Vietnam Veterans Memorial ‘‘to honor those 
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Vietnam veterans who died after their service in the 
Vietnam war, but as a direct result of that service, 
and whose names are not otherwise eligible for 
placement on the memorial wall’’. 
(9) The names of a number of veterans who 
died during the Vietnam war are not eligible for in-
scription on the memorial wall or the plaque. 
(10) Examples of such names include the 
names of the 74 servicemembers who died aboard 
the U.S.S. Frank E. Evans (DD–754) on June 3, 
1969, while the ship was briefly outside the combat 
zone participating in a training exercise. 
(b) STUDY.—The Secretary of Defense shall conduct 
a study that— 
(1) identifies the veterans (as defined in section 
101(2) of title 38, United States Code) who died on 
or after November 1, 1955, as a direct or indirect 
result of military operations in southeast Asia and 
whose names are not eligible for inscription on the 
memorial wall of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial; 
(2) evaluates the feasibility and equatability of 
revising the eligibility requirements applicable to the 
inscription of names on the memorial wall to be 
more inclusive of such veterans; and 
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