WASHINGTON ( CNN ) -- Fifteen years after his death , and after his family fought a very long bureaucratic battle with the government , Enrique Valdez 's name was added to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial . Rick Valdez looks at his father 's name on the Wall on Monday . Valdez was a Marine gunnery sergeant wounded by shrapnel in August 1969 , combat that left him a quadriplegic . Since his death in 1994 , his family has been waiting for the Defense Department to answer their requests that Valdez be included on `` The Wall . '' On Memorial Day , his family finally got their wish , as they watched his name officially added to `` The Wall . '' His name was added to the registry after the Department of Defense declared he was eligible because he died from his war injuries . Rick Valdez was 7 when his father was deployed to Vietnam . `` The night he had to go to the bus station for his second tour of duty , that was the last time I saw him walking , '' the son recalled . `` The next time we saw him was at the Veterans Administration hospital in Long Beach [ California ] , after they shipped him home , '' he said . The Marine was 32 . `` There are people that are worse off than I was , '' Tina Valdez recalled his father always saying . `` I enlisted , and I served . I knew what I was getting into . And if this is the worst that could happen to me , well then , so be it . '' When notification came weeks ago from the Defense Department that Valdez 's name would be added to the Wall , there was no explanation with it . Valdez 's family previously thought since he had n't been killed during war , Enrique Valdez could n't be on the wall . Comrades and others told the family that he could be added to `` The Wall `` as long as we could show that his death was a result of his [ war ] injuries , '' said daughter Tina Valdez . `` And when my father passed away , they put it on the death certificate , long before we even knew that this was a possibility . '' Now , they could n't be more thrilled that it 's not a possibility anymore -- it 's a reality -- though they do n't have an explanation for why the Defense Department finally notified them . `` What changed ? '' his daughter Tina Valdez asked . `` I 've been sending [ the Defense Department ] the same information for 14 years . Why all of a sudden is it different now ? '' But when she saw the fresh lettering earlier this month on Panel 17 , she felt that an explanation did n't matter as much anymore . `` It 's OK , because his name is here , '' she said . Watch Gunnery Sgt . Valdez 's family at the Memorial » . Enrique Valdez joins 58,260 other names listed on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial , and his is the only name added this year under 1969 , for combat deaths that year or later deaths resulting from injuries sustained in combat that year .
CNN . Rick Valdez name added to Vietnam Veterans Memorial . Vietnam Veterans Memorial died from wounds suffered in years . His family worked for August 1969 to have his name added to the memorial .