Challenges and Successes in Recovering Vietnam Veteran Photos

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington D.C. honors more than 58,000 men and women who served or sacrificed their lives in the Vietnam War with inscriptions carved on a two-acre granite wall. While the names serve as recognition for their bravery, the photos of more than 300 service members remain missing.

In 2017, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund initiated a project called the Wall of Faces that intends to catalog a digital collection of photos and profiles for every veteran. As a part of the nonprofit Education Center at the Wall, the project digitally links the names with photos, service history and the engraving information and location on the Vietnam Wall.

Photo recovery is assisted by a collaboration of volunteers, veterans and organizations across the nation searching for the remaining photos. Detailed searches are conducted to track down veteran family histories, military backgrounds, education documents and anything else that might provide a visual identification or story in recognition of their services. The photos from the Wall of Faces are projected on each of the veteran’s birthday and digital directories allow friends and family to share remembrances, photos, memories and connect with each other. As of the end of 2019, 337 photos remain missing.

The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee has played an integral role in the project’s reign in the Midwest as students in the JAMS department have participated by applying investigate journalism skills to recover yearbook photos, obituary records and family backgrounds. Students have now become responsible for finding photos of soldiers who, in many cases, were not much older than themselves when they were sent or went to war. While some photos have been recovered, others have proven to be particularly difficult to find.

Janna Hoehn has spent the past five years working with a team of about 10 volunteers—many of them Vietnam veterans—tracking down over 7,000 photos.

“Each one of our fallen deserves to be honored and remembered,” Hoehn said. “A face changes the dynamic of the Vietnam Wall. They were someone’s loved one, friend or classmate—not just a name on a wall.”

Hoehn was in high school during the Vietnam War and her role as a volunteer was inspired by her visit to the Vietnam Wall where she remembers seeing her reflection against the inscribed names.

In 2011, Hoehn began her search through a newspaper campaign in Hawaii where she is a current resident. After completing the state, she proceeded to find more than 2,000 photos from her home state of California now with only eight remaining. Hoehn then continued the search across the Pacific Northwest, Michigan, Georgia, New York, Puerto Rico as well as every other state with an incomplete catalog.

“New York has been very difficult with so many high schools to search through,” Hoehn said. “Puerto Rico has been difficult with the devastation from the hurricane. Some schools are not even there anymore, much less libraries. It truly is a challenge. However, we don’t give up and miracles do happen.”

In 2015, a student in UWM professor Jessica McBride’s journalism class uncovered the photo of Willie Bedford—a Marine from Milwaukee who had died in Vietnam at 19-years-old. Because of a typo, Bedford’s photo was the last out of the state to be recovered. (Read the full story here.) That semester, students found other veteran photos including images of Nathaniel Merriweather and Donald Voltner.

Inspired by that success, McBride’s students were each assigned a service member from one of the remaining incomplete states. In early December 2019, another student utilized the Coffelt Database of Vietnam Casualties to recover the military and familial records of 20-year-old Wayland McCauley Jr.

Using online search tools like Classmate.com, Instant Checkmate, Ansestry.com and social media, education records and family history provided a photo and clues to McCauley’s life.

As time grows distant, the remaining photos are among some of the most challenging to find. As family and friends who might have known or had photos of the missing service members become further removed, the gaps in the investigative process deepen. Listed phone numbers become obsolete and some family members pass away while others cannot provide photos.

While Hoehn and other active researchers are hoping for 100% recovery, they realize that “realistically, it may not happen.”

One Michigan man’s photo has been particularly challenging to recover.

Charles Harmon of Detroit was born in 1945 and was drafted in the Vietnam War in August 1965. The following March, Harmon’s body was recovered in South Vietnam after a grenade accidentally went off in a tent killing him and severely injuring others.

Harmon is buried in the Detroit Memorial Park Cemetery in Warren, MI but didn’t receive a headstone until Oct. 2016 when the 1/8 Jumping Mustangs spearheaded an effort to donate a proper memorial stone.

Sue Rice, a researcher for the 1/8 Jumping Mustangs wrote in response to search efforts, saying, “It is with great regret that I must tell you that I know nothing of Charles except what you have already determined. My husband searched for his burial site a few years back and found him buried with just a metal number to indicate where he was. The government would not contribute because we were not related—really, after 50 years since his death. We have come to realize about 10 other Vietnam casualties are also buried with no stone in that same cemetery. Looking at his military history, it is possible he was a dropout in the Detroit School system. He was an orphan living with an aunt or older sister.”

Tracing back Harmon’s next of kin has so far proved unsuccessful as listed contacts report not knowing of any connection. Adoption and academic records have not yet been recovered to determine his story and the search for recognizing Harmon and the remaining soldiers continues.

Hoehn said that she has searched for Harmon as well but encountered issues in skeptical or empty responses from relatives. The yearbooks at Central High School were not available during the years Harmon attended, and there was a reported press strike during the year his obituary would have been published.

Other efforts to recognize veterans include initiatives led by Andrew Johnson, president of the National Newspaper Association and publisher several local newspapers as he works to communicate the names of soldiers killed in action to news outlets across the country.

Johnson’s efforts are motivated by the loss of his son 1LT David Johnson in active duty in Afghanistan in 2012. Since then, Johnson has connected media outlets with the stories and projects in their communities that can help inform the public about ongoing recognition efforts.

“Since I was a Gold Star dad, I think I had the ear of people in the newspaper business,” Johnson said. “We started in Wisconsin and went to other states. We worked with the VVMF and state newspaper associations to spread information about the project.”

Recovering these last missing photos means preserving the legacies of brave veterans who sacrificed everything and will allow future generations a glimpse into the people impacted by the Vietnam War.

“Our Vietnam veterans did not receive a welcome home or any type of honor after the Vietnam War,” Hoehn said. “It is beyond our time to honor our fallen for their sacrifice and courage. My experience with this project has led me to meet some of the most generous, selfless men I have ever met. The Gold Star families are a blessing to me. Our Vietnam Veterans were the best that America had.”