Date & Time
Wednesday, July 20, 2022
5:30 pm Doors Open & Wine Reception6:00 pm LectureTICKETS:$20.00 for Non-MembersFREE for Members
Marines’ Memorial Club & Hotel
Commandants Room, 10th Floor
609 Sutter Street, San Francisco
ABOUT THE EVENT:
A de facto national Vietnam veterans memorial, built by one family more than a decade before the Wall in Washington, DC, the chapel at Angel Fire is a testament to one young American’s sacrifice—but also to the profound determination of his family to find meaning in their loss. In The Vietnam Veterans Memorial at Angel Fire, Steven Trout tells the story of Marine Lieutenant David Westphall, who was killed near Con Thien on May 22, 1968, and of the Westphall family’s subsequent struggle to create and maintain a one-of-a-kind memorial chapel dedicated to the memory of all Americans lost in the Vietnam War and to the cause of world peace.
At our next “Meet the Author,” Mr. Steven Trout will shed light on this unique monument and the family whose efforts established what has become an iconic pilgrimage destination for thousands of Vietnam Veterans.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Steven Trout is a Professor of English and Chair of the Department of English at the University of Alabama. His research focuses primarily on American war literature and war memorialization, especially from the era of World War I. His many books include On the Battlefield of Memory: The First World War and American Remembrance, 1919-1941, Memorial Fictions: Willa Cather and the First World War, and Portraits of Remembrance: Painting, Memory, and the First World War (coedited with Margaret Hutchison). Professor Trout’s latest book, The Vietnam Veterans Memorial at Angel Fire: War, Remembrance, and an American Tragedy, is his one and only treatment of America’s war in Vietnam and its still-divisive memory in the United States. He was inspired to take on this project after discovering the memorial at Angel Fire entirely by accident in 2011.
Moderator: Richard Dickerson
