According to "The Wall-USA", the Vietnam Veterans Memorial organization was originally created by "Jan Scruggs, who served in Vietnam (in the 199th Light Infantry Brigade) from 1969. -1970 as infantry corporal”. Being an injured veteran himself, once back in the United States, Scruggs began studying PTSD, or post-traumatic stress disorder, and wanted to create a memorial for those who fell to ease the transition for other veterans. Needing a location for the memorial, Scruggs lobbied for land near the Rose Gardens and was granted 2 acres on July 1, 1980, by President Jimmy Carter. Instead of using government funds for the memorial, Scruggs and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund raised nearly nine million dollars from "...corporations, foundations, unions, veterans and civic organizations and more than 275,000 Americans. » (“The Wall-USA). After securing enough money to create the memorial, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial group had to determine which model it would use. So he held an open competition in which contestants submitted their ideas to be judged anonymously. The only rules of the competition were "...the memorial must contain the names of all Americans who died in Vietnam or are missing in action, make no political statements about the war, be in harmony with its surroundings, and have a contemplative character." (Greenspan). The submitted drawings were anonymous in order to eliminate any bias towards a candidate based on their nationality. Additionally, the designs were to be judged by a panel of eight judges made up of various sculptors, structural architects, landscape designers and landscape architects. Although more than 1,400 projects were submitted, including projects by professional architects and designers, the jury chose entry number 1026, the project of 20-year-old Maya Lin. The winning design received