Some of the already collected photographs, found in high school yearbooks and offered by families and relatives are on display on the memorial’s website. The plan is for the photographs to be displayed at the Education Center, a new museum set to open by 2020, near the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C.
The man behind the development of “The Wall”, also president and founder of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund said they will be putting the photographs and names for visitors at the Education Center. “Seeing the photos and hearing the music playing will put the visitor in a certain emotional state,” he said.
At this time, the collection contains 33,000 photographs of men and women who died during the Vietnam War. 296 men from the central San Joaquin Valley were killed in the war and most of them don’t have a picture yet. There were 72 servicemen from Fresno County, 33 from Tulare County; 23 from Merced County; 14 from Kings County; and seven from Madera County.
Phillip S. Mohnike of Visalia, was killed when his helicopter was shot down in Vietnam. His cousin Joe Mohnike of Visalia offered to submit a basic training picture he had of him, The Fresno Bee reports.
Lance Cpl. William “Bill” Yohn of Fresno volunteered for the Marines after finishing high school and was killed when he was 19 years old, in 1969 in Quang Tri province. His photograph was still missing, until his sister Mary Yohn of Fresno found one of his, taken in Hawaii, in front of a barracks. She was happy to submit her brother’s photo to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund website. She said she still misses her brother and it has been impossible for her to forget him. Once, when she went back to the house where she used to live in Eugene, Ore., she “sat in the rain and talked to my brother for a long time,” she said.
Janna Hoehn is one of the volunteers who have made a huge contribution to The Wall of Faces after starting a personal mission to find the missing photographs of the fallen soldiers from California.
Anybody who thinks might be able to help locate these photographs, can have a look at the list of names, which can be found on the memorial’s website – www.vvmf.org/Wall-of-Faces and if you have a picture or if you know somebody who does, you can submit it directly onto the website.