The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund has added another $1.5 million to its tally in an effort to raise about $100 million for a memorial center to be built underground near the Vietnam Veterans Memorial on the National Mall.
The D.C. nonprofit said defense contractor Lockheed Martin (NYSE:LMT), based in Bethesda, pledged $1 million and Houston-based Marathon Oil Corp. (NYSE:MRO) put up $500,000.
That brings the total amount raised to $16 million since Congress approved the center in November 2003.
If all goes as planned, the memorial fund said it expects to break ground on the 25,000-square-foot center in 2010 that will showcase 100,000 items that have been left by tourists at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, a timeline of key military events in the Vietnam War and rotating exhibits.
It is expected to open as early as 2011.
The memorial fund was founded in 1979 and was instrumental in building the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, which opened in 1982. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial has the inscriptions of the names of more than 58,000 men and women who died or went missing during the Vietnam War from 1959 to 1975. This year is the 25th anniversary of when the wall was built.
Media giant Time Warner Inc. (NYSE:TWX) has led the private funding for the center with $10 million. Houston-based ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) has also donated $2 million
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