The Wall That Heals Author:Jan Scruggs Jan Scruggs started and directed the enormously successful effort to create a national memorial honoring those Americans who served their country in the Vietnam War. Scruggs went to Vietnam with the U.S. Army's 199th Light Infantry Brigade after graduating from high school. Wounded and decorated for gallantry, he returned home to obtain a Master... more »'s Degree in counseling from American University in Washington, D.S. The idea for a memorial inscribed with the names of those who fell in Vietnam came while doing graduate school research on veterans of the War. Starting with $2,800 of his own money, Scruggs initiated the memorial project in 1979 after Congress failed to act.« less