Whereas military involvement in Vietnam began in November 1955 when the Military Assistance and Advisory Group was established in the region; Whereas the first United States casualty of the war, Technical Sergeant Richard B. Fitzgibbon, Jr., lost his life in 1956; Whereas United States Armed Forces ground combat units first arrived in Vietnam in 1965, and by 1969, had reached a peak of approximately 543,000 troops; Whereas on March 29, 1973, the United States Armed Forces completed the withdrawal of combat and support combat units from Vietnam; Whereas the Vietnam war was divisive and controversial, and too often members of the United States Armed Forces came home, after serving bravely and honorably, to communities and a country conflicted about the war; Whereas, in 1980, the Congress authorized the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund to build a national memorial to commemorate and honor the Vietnam war servicemembers for their courage, sacrifice, and devotion to duty and country; Whereas the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, DC, was dedicated on November 13, 1982, and is visited by more than 5.6 million people every year, who have left more than 400,000 items of remembrance at the wall; Whereas, on Veterans Day in 1996, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund unveiled a three-quarter scale replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, which was designed to travel to communities across the country in order to allow people nationwide to pay their respects to Vietnam war veterans; Whereas the replica is 375 feet in length, 7.5 feet high at its tallest point, and includes 140 panels, each engraved with the names of fallen United States Armed Forces servicemembers who served during the Vietnam war; Whereas the replica is one portion of The Wall That Heals exhibit, which includes a mobile Education Center that displays information on the history and legacy of the Vietnam war, Vietnam veterans, and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial