Diane Carlson Evans

In 1983, when Evans came up with the vision for the first-ever memorial on the National Mall to honor women who'd worn a military uniform, she wouldn't be deterred. She remembered not only her sister veterans, but also the hundreds of young wounded men she had cared for, as she expressed during a Congressional hearing in Washington, D.C.: "Women didn't have to enter military service, but we stepped up to serve believing we belonged with our brothers-in-arms...

Australian Kate Webb was one of the first reporters to reach the US Embassy in Saigon during the Tet offensive and became UPI bureau chief for Cambodia in 1970, before being captured by North Vietnamese troops. Le Ly Hayslip enjoyed a peaceful early childhood in the Vietnamese farming village of Ky La before war changed her life forever. Brutalized by all sides, she escaped to the United States, where she eventually founded two humanitarian organizations....