Photos of fallen soldiers needed for education center at The Wall
courtesy photo
Janna Hoehn displays photos of 42 Former Maui residents whose names are etched on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall.
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Remembering and honoring those who lost their lives in the Vietnam conflict is the mission of Hawaii resident Janna Hoehn.
She’s looking for photographs of 10 fallen soldiers from Lake County whose names are etched into the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington, D.C.
The photos will be included in “Faces Never Forgotten,” and installed in the Education Center to be built near the Wall.
The Faces Never Forgotten program is an effort to put a face and a story to each name on The Wall ... to ensure this vital piece of history will be remembered and honored by visitors from around the globe for generations, according to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund website.
Hoehn became involved with the project after visiting Washington D.C. with her husband for the first time.
“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,” she said.
She planned to send the family the etching, hoping they would share a photo of Gregory with her.
It was important for Hoehn to see the face of the man who gave his life. Six weeks later a family historian found a college photo of Gregory.
Then two years later she learned about “Faces Never Forgotten.”
“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 soldier and asked me if I could help him find the photos for the 42 Maui County soldiers that were killed in Vietnam. I told him it would be an honor,” she said.
After six months of digging through several resources and with help from newspaper articles, she finally had a photo of every solider from 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,” she said.
Latley Hoehn has been attempting to locate photos of Native American soldiers.
“More than 94 newspapers have run the story throughout Hawaii, California, Washington, Idaho and Oregon. The response has been amazing, I have collected more than 1,200 photos since May 2013,” she said. “With your help it will be more.”
All photos will be submitted to the “Wall of Faces” online memorial with the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, as well as in the future Education Center that will be adjacent to the Vietnam Wall in Washington, DC.
“Putting a face with a name changes the whole dynamic of the Wall. It keeps our fallen heroes’ memories alive and will honor them, our heroes stories and sacrifice will never be forgotten,” Hoehn said.”We need to obtain a photo of every single soldier whose names are etched on The Wall, all 58,300 of them. To date we have more than 39,500 photos.”
Hoehn hopes to find an individual that would like to volunteer to do some footwork in Lake County..
Submit any photos or information to Janna Hoehn at neverforgotten2014@gmail.com
For more information about the Education Center or make a donation to help build the Center go to:http://www.vvmf.org/faces-never-forgotten
Photos are needed of the following:
Jack M. Baker 1949-1970 Ronan
Wayne A. Barnum 1948-1968 Ronan
Clarence F. Bristol 1947-1969 St. Ignatius
William J. Fisher 1941-1966 Arlee
Gary J. Greiner 1949-1969 Polson
Jean B. Incashola 1937-1966St. Ignatius
John C. Mattheisen 1949-1969 Charlo
Joseph L. Pokerjim 1946-1967 St. Ignatius
Richard E. Westfall 1946-1969 Polson
Gilbert L. Zerbst 1949-1968 St. Ignatius
