AMONG thousands of names etched on the cold black-marble wall of the Vietnam War Memorial is that of Air Force Maj. Robert Harry Irwin. To find him, go to Panel 2-West, Line 107, near the center and close to the bottom of the wall.
Next to his name, where there had been a small cross, is a freshly chiseled diamond — an inscription made by the National Park Service to indicate that the F-4 Phantom fighter pilot and Peekskill native was killed in Vietnam.
Major Irwin’s family welcomes the inscription and says that now the world knows what they learned in 1989: that the career serviceman was killed and not missing in action, as the family suspected for nearly two decades.
Wilbur and Evelyn Irwin, Major Irwin’s parents, and Christopher Irwin, his oldest son, talked haltingly about the flier on the eve of a Veterans Day ceremony that will honor him and others whose names have been added or whose missing-in-action status has been changed on the memorial. One of 310 Families
