FedEx Teams with Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund to Preserve Veterans’ Memories

“Freedom isn’t free.”
-    Anonymous

There is a price to the freedoms we enjoy at home and those we protect for citizens around the world. Having served in Iraq in recent years, I know this cost well. Freedom asks of its defenders commitment and perseverance, honor and respect, courage and drive. But freedom’s most costly demand is personal sacrifice.

For military servicemen and women, these sacrifices come both large and small. We sacrifice time with family and friends. We redirect our talents and passions from personal and professional pursuits to those needed by our country. Our families, friends and communities – the support system and encouraging voice driving every service member – forgo the presence of loved ones at the dinner table, birthday parties and school recitals because they understand we have been called to serve and protect. And in the history of this great nation, many service men and women have made the ultimate sacrifice.

We are eternally grateful.

While we remember the wars and conflicts as a whole, too often the unique sacrifices of our veterans fade and blur in the pages of history. Today, we have the opportunity to preserve their individual contributions.  I’m proud that FedEx Corp. and FedEx Office have teamed up with the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund (VVMF) to do just that.

From now until May 31, 2010, family and friends of servicemen and women who lost their lives during the Vietnam War can bring a photo of their veteran to any of the more than 1,600 FedEx Office Print and Ship Centers in the United States. We’ll scan in the photo and related information and provide it to the VVMF for preservation in the new Education Center at The Wall in Washington, D.C.

Our goal is to collect a photo of every one of the 58,261 Vietnam War servicemen and women whose names are inscribed on The Wall. It’s a monumental undertaking, but the end result will truly honor our proud veterans – past, present and future.

If you’d like to learn more about the "National Call for Photos" program, check out the official news story on the FedEx Newsroom. You can also learn more about the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund at http://www.vvmf.org/

I hope you’ll join us in making this visionary tribute a reality. Together, these 58,261 photos will remind us all of the personal cost – and priceless value – of our freedom.

*Brad Gonzales is a Senior Center Manager with FedEx Office. He has worked for the company for 20 years and is based in Utah.  Brad is also a proud veteran of the United States Army, and served in Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom.