"[5] Inside it shows the stars, arranged by year of death and, when possible, lists the names of employees who died in CIA service alongside them.

[17][18] The identities of the unnamed stars remain secret, even in death, though many names from the Cold War era have been released or uncovered in recent years.

[1]The Honor and Merit Awards Board (HMAB) recommends approval of candidates to be listed on the wall to the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency.

[1] The CIA states that [i]nclusion on the Memorial Wall is awarded posthumously to employees who lose their lives while serving their country in the field of intelligence.

[19] Jane Wallis Burrell was the first CIA officer to die in the Agency's service when an Air France DC-3 from Brussels crashed on approach to the Le Bourget Airport near Paris on January 6, 1948, killing all five crew members and 10 of the 11 passengers.

[113] On May 6, 1954, during the Battle of Dien Bien Phu, two CIA pilots, James B. McGovern, Jr. and Wallace Buford, were killed when their C-119 Flying Boxcar cargo plane was shot down while on a resupply mission for the French military.

There were more than 30, pilots and other crew members, of the CIA's Air America company who were killed during the Vietnam War that were not counted as part of the Agency even though they worked for it.