Mike McClung speaks at groundbreaking

Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta, right, greets Dr. Michael McClung at a groundbreaking ceremony for the The Education Center at The Wall in Washington, D.C. Nov. 28, 2012. McClung is a Vietnam veteran and a Gold Star father. His daughter, U.S. Marine Corps Maj. Megan McClung, was killed in roadside bomb attack in Ramadi, Iraq, in 2006. (DOD photo by U.S. Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Chad J. McNeeley)

Former Marine Captain Michael McClung, a Vietnam war veteran, seemed to speak for all those gathered at the Mall in Washington, D.C. yesterday. He choked a bit as he addressed the crowd. “We have a legacy of service and we can only ask that you remember us.”

McClung, father of Marine Major Megan McClung, a combat correspondent who was killed in Iraq, was among the VIPs at the groundbreaking for a Vietnam Education Centrer. The facility will tell the story of the war and honor veterans of all the nation’s conflicts. The  underground center will be located near the Lincoln Memorial and walking distance from the Vietnam Wall.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta predicted that the new center will becomne a “new national landmark.” Many relatives of servicemen and women killed in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan attended the ceremonies. Mike McClung has attended at least one  USMCCCA conference since the death of his daughter. A USMCCCA annual merit award is named in her honor.