DOTHAN, Ala. (AP) - Pfc. Charles W. Ford is one of the more than 58,000 Americans killed or missing in action during the Vietnam War.
Janna Hoehn is working to put a face with the name.
As a volunteer with the “Faces Never Forgotten” campaign for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, the Hawaii resident says Ford’s photo is the only one missing among the 14 fallen service members who enlisted in Houston County.
Photos for the others - Larry G. Baldwin, Larry A. Brown, Donald D. Burnham, Ernest L. Elliott, William R. Gregory, Lowell C. Hansen, Randle Kinney, Russell W. Kistler, Joseph T. Roberson, Hurley A. Smith, Robert T. Wilson, David M. Wood and Jeffery A. Yerion - can be found at the “Wall of Faces” online memorial at vvmf.org.
The campaign aims to find a photo for every name listed on the Vietnam Wall. The ultimate goal is to display service members’ photos at The Education Center at The Wall, an interactive learning facility that will be adjacent to the Vietnam Wall in Washington, D.C.
Hoehn became interested in the project nearly a decade ago when she and her husband made their first visit to Washington. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial was the first stop on her must-see list.
The war was happening while Hoehn was in high school. Even though she didn’t know anyone who was killed or missing, she wanted a rubbing of one of the names etched on the wall.
At random she chose Gregory John Crossman, an MIA. She began researching him when she got home.
She planned to find his family and send them the rubbing. With the help of a cousin, she found a college photo of Crossman.
About two years later a Maui news station ran a story about the “Faces Never Forgotten” project. Hoehn submitted Crossman’s photo, and shortly thereafter she became a volunteer with the campaign.
Since 2011 Hoehn has collected more than 6,000 photos for the project. She started by finding photos of the 42 fallen from Maui County, then branched out to other areas of the nation.
Hoehn contacts newspapers in areas where photos are missing about doing a story. Family members and friends see the article and contact Hoehn.
“I’ve had such huge success,” Hoehn said. “Sometimes when the story comes out somebody will say, oh, I know his half brother or half sister and they’ll get the article to them and I’ll hear back.”
Charles Walter Ford’s case has some unusual twists. He was born Nov. 25, 1947, and died in Thua Thien province on April 6, 1967. He is buried at Davis Memorial Cemetery in Titusville, Florida. His headstone has “Louisiana” above his rank and artillery unit.
“It’s such a mystery on some these young men,” Hoehn said. “They’ll enlist in one place which becomes their home of record, which is very deceiving. It’s only where they entered the military and they may not have grown up there.”
The address for Ford’s mother, Pheobe L. Jones, was a Slocomb route and box number when he died, Hoehn said. “His father was Leon Ford, but it says address unknown, so they must not have been together.”
Hoehn said Ford’s mother may have remarried so he could have half-siblings.
“You just never know,” she said. “You’ve just got to really dig.”
Some high schools have closed, so the only yearbooks with photos of the fallen may be with classmates.
“If a classmate sees it and they have a yearbook, they always contact me and scan and email the photos to me,” Hoehn said.
More than 2,000 names on the Vietnam Wall still don’t have photos. Hoehn said photos of four veterans from Dale County and two veterans from Geneva County have yet to be located.
Kenneth E. Enfinger, of Ozark, was born in 1940 and died in 1969. Lawrence J. Herman III, of Ozark, was born in 1950 and died in 1970. Donald E. Lisenby, of Ozark, was born in 1940 and died in 1968. Robert N. Middlebrooks, of Ariton, was born in 1927 and died in 1966.
Earl Gautney, of Coffee Springs, was born in 1935 and died in 1967. J C Love, of Black, was born in 1943 and died in 1966.
Anyone with photos or information can email Hoehn at neverforgotten2014@gmail.com .
Hoehn said photos personalize the names on the wall.
“The name is one thing. The Vietnam Wall is very beautiful and it’s done very well, but it is just a name,” Hoehn said. “Once you put a photo with that name it makes it a real person.”
Photos change the whole dynamic of the wall, she said.
“It’s somebody’s loved one, it’s somebody that still misses them each day,” Hoehn said. “It affects me. I don’t know these young men but it affects me greatly when I get these pictures.”
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Information from: The Dothan Eagle, http://www.dothaneagle.com
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