Flags At The Wall Dianne L. Ray Rolling Thunder XIII		On July 1, 1980, Congress set aside a two-acre site in Constitution Gardens near the Lincoln Memorial as the location of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. That October it was announced that the memorial's design would be selected through a national competition open to any U.S. citizen. With 2,573 registrants, the competition became the largest of its kind ever held in the United States. The winning design was created by Maya Ying Lin of Athens, Ohio, who at the time was a 21 year old student attending Yale University. The Vietnam Memorial was dedicated on November 13, 1982.