James Lee and Kirk Bockman of Colorado based Engrave Write along with JC Cummings, AIA, the architect of record for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

Jim carefully marks out where status changes are to be made.

The Department of Defense is the agency responsible for deciding whose names go on The Wall, based on established criteria. If the DOD determines that a Vietnam Veterans death was a direct result of severe physical, psychological and torture-related combat wounds inflicted by the enemy while he was held prisoner during the Vietnam conflict.

The following eleven names, whose remains have now been identified required status change from MIA to KIA: John Quincy Adam, Jerry Lee Chambers, Robert John Edgar, Calvin Charles Glover, Douglas J. Glover, Robert Smith Griffith, William Henderson Mason, Curtis Daniel Miller, Elton Lawrence Perrine, Harmon Polster and Melvin Douglas Rash.

The cross symbol signifying missing or prisoner status at the end of the war and remain missing and unaccounted for, are now being updated with the diamond symbol superimposed over the cross meaning the serviceman's remains are returned or he is otherwise accounted for.

The Department of Defense is the agency responsible for deciding whose names go on The Wall, based on established criteria. If the DOD determines that a Vietnam Veterans death was a direct result of severe physical, psychological and torture-related combat wounds inflicted by the enemy while he was held prisoner during the Vietnam conflict.

Examples of the cross symbol updated to the diamond symbol. Those whose names are designated by the cross symbol were in missing or prisoner status at the end of the war and remain missing and unaccounted for. In the event a serviceman's remains are returned or he is otherwise accounted for, the diamond symbol is superimposed over the cross.

The diamond symbol denotes that the service member's death was confirmed. If a man returns alive, a circle, as a symbol of life, will be inscribed around the cross. No such cases have occurred though some men have been found to be alive with their names on The Wall due to clerical errors. To put a circle around their names would not give a correct historical context to the symbols. These names are and have been removed from periodic revisions of the printed Directory of Names.