Mission Accomplished ... For Now

But the controversy, which received plenty of press, helped fuel fundraising for the memorial. Organizations such as the American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars and American Gold Star Mothers threw their support behind the effort. Children in schools took up collections, and individuals across the country continued to give. The VFW began promoting the idea of the memorial and soliciting donations from its local posts through direct mail. At that time, there were between 9,000 to 10,000 local VFW posts, and over the course of the campaign VFW contributed as much as $300,000 through a combination of donations from individual members and the organization itself.