Editor’s note: Janna Hoehn of Maui, Hawaii, is assisting with the “Wall of Faces” online memorial in memory of those who died serving in the Vietnam War. Hoehn recently contacted the Courier asking if anyone has photographs of two fallen service members from Riceboro: John Gibson, born 1946, died 1968, and Dan N. James, born 1948, died 1968. Hoehn is asking that she be contacted, so their photos can be added to the memorial project. She explains in her own words how and why she became involved.
Eight years ago my husband and I made our first trip to Washington D.C. Because Vietnam was the war that was going on while I was in high school the first memorial on my list was the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall. Even though I never knew anyone killed in Vietnam, I wanted a rubbing of one of the names. I approached the Wall and choose a name: Gregory John Crossman, MIA.
When I returned home I decided to research Gregory and try to find his family. In the event they were never able to go to the Wall, I would send them the etching, hoping they would share a photo with me of Gregory. Off and on for six months I researched every way possible and never found any family. I was quite disappointed. However, I had one more possibility; my cousin, our family historian. Six weeks later she found a college photo of Gregory.
Two years later I saw a story on our local news about the “Faces Never Forgotten” for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund. Their goal was to put a face with every name that is etched on the Wall. I immediately sent in the photo I had of Gregory Crossman. Five days later I received an email from Jan Scruggs, the founder and president of the Vietnam Wall. He thanked me for sending the photo. It was the first for this hero and he asked me if I could help him find photos for the 42 Maui County fallen that were killed in Vietnam. I replied, “It would be an honor.”
I have always hoped I could to do something for the Vietnam Veterans; because, the way they were treated when they returned was disgraceful. Here was my chance. What I thought would be a very easy project with Maui being so small was anything but easy. I started by combing through phone books, calling every like name of each soldier. I found about 10 of them this way. Then it was off to archived yearbooks for every high school on Maui. I found a few more. Then I went to the library to look for obituaries and found three more. Next, I went to the Maui News, where they printed a beautiful front page article about the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund and the Education Center. I started receiving calls from all over the United States sending me photos. I was unaware how many people read the Maui News online. The Maui News ran an article about every six weeks printing the list of names of photos I still needed. Every time they ran a story, I would receive another photo or two. After six months of searching I had a photo of every fallen hero from Maui County. Once I had all the photos I decided I did not want to keep this to myself. I needed to share it with Maui County. I had a display made with all 42 photos. I take it all over Maui giving presentations to high schools, libraries and civic groups. It has been very well received.
Once I finished finding all the Maui County photos, I moved on to my hometown in California and found the five Soldiers from my childhood home, Hemet, Calif.
I have been very involved in trying to locate photos of the Native American Soldiers which brought me to begin searching for all Soldiers in California. More than 500 newspapers have run the story throughout Hawaii, California, Washington, Idaho, Oregon, Nevada, Colorado, North Carolina, Alaska, Utah, Montana, Texas, Kansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Louisiana, Arizona, Kentucky, Arkansas, Ohio, Tennessee, Alabama, Illinois, Michigan, South Carolina, New York and now Georgia. The response has been amazing. I have collected over 7,000 photos since 2011. With your help it will be more. I am taking one state at a time, moving west to east. All of these photos will be submitted to the “Wall of Faces” online memorial with the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund website, as well as accompanying the Wall That Heals that travels all over the U.S.
Putting a face with a name changes the whole dynamic of the Wall; it keeps our fallen heroes’ memories alive and will honor them, ensuring their stories and sacrifice will never be forgotten.
If anyone is related, a friend of or a classmate to any of the young men on the list I would very much appreciate hearing from you. Even if you don’t have a photo but know which school any of these young men attended, it would be so helpful. We need to obtain a photo of every single fallen hero whose names are etched on The Wall; all 58,315 of them. To date we have collected over 53,000 photos.
Please submit any photos or information to Janna Hoehn at
neverforgotten2014@gmail.com
For more information about the Wall of Faces please go to:
www.vvmf.org/thewall
Mahalo Janna Hoehn
Volunteer, Wall of Faces Project
Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund