Vietnam Veterans Memorial Spells Name Incorrectly, Vets Fight To Get It Changed

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington DC is one of the greatest standing monuments to service men and women in the United States, unfortunately it also has a spelling mistake.

Two Vietnam veterans are fighting to have the name of their ally Stephen Hiett Phillips changed on the war memorial where it currently reads “Shephen.’

Speaking to the News-Leader the men say of the mistake:

“One doesn’t honor a person by misspelling their name.”

The name appears on a part of the wall that lists 1967 casualties and while the two veterans say they have fought hard to get the name changed or in the least acknowledged they have been met with nothing but “total, absolute frustration.”

The men say their efforts appear to have gone unnoticed, according to Pete Neumann:

“Most the time, I do not even get the courtesy of a return call or message.”

The veterans say they realize that the Vietnam Veterans Memorial is made of stone and they acknowledge that a fix may be hard if not impossible to make for that reason, they would however like the online “Virtual Wall” to be changed in order to reflect the correct name.

As far as the men can tell the misspelled name is the direct result of a spelling error found on a 1967 casualties list.

Do you believe the U.S. Military should work quickly to change the name on the stone and fix the spelling of Stephen’s name via the Virtual Wall which is a much faster process that can be accomplished with a few clicks of a mouse?

[Image via Jorg Hackemann / Shutterstock.com]