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It took decades: Now there鈥檚 a photo for each name on Vietnam wall

Volunteers have now tracked down at least one photo for every one of the more than 58,000 U.S. military service members who died in the Vietnam War 鈥� for an online聽聽project that took more than two decades to complete.

The goal was to help a new generation of Americans grapple with sacrifice and inspire them to reflect, perhaps, on 鈥渨hy we have a wall鈥� with names inscribed on it, say organizers from the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund (VVMF), the nonprofit that spearheaded the digital project as well as the national monument on which all these names are engraved.

More than half of the visitors to the memorial in Washington, D.C., today weren鈥檛 alive when it was commissioned in 1982, they add.

Over the years the picture-gathering process could be fraught: Relatives were sometimes reluctant to share photos of loved ones killed in battles picked by a government their survivors had come to distrust.

And stock photos taken straight out of, say, boot camp graduation can be surprisingly tough to come by. 鈥淭he military doesn鈥檛 just sit there and funnel pictures to you,鈥� says Herb Reckinger, a volunteer.聽

So tracking them down often involved investigative dedication, reaching out to local librarians, scouring yearbooks, and, at one point, combing through microfiche for a grainy image of a high schooler orphaned and homeless before he was drafted.聽

The project evolved into a quest, too, for photos that were actually good聽鈥� meaning they showed a little personality, says Tim Tetz, director of outreach at VVMF.聽

Seeing young people in their prime, before they were soldiers, kicking back on a beach, cradling a newborn niece, or 鈥渟itting through that awkward school photo where their mom made them wear a funny sweater gets you to realize that they went through the same milestones and moments that each of us have gone through and really brings the sacrifice home,鈥� he says. 鈥淵ou see the impact this war had on so many.鈥澛�

Along the way, Mr. Tetz adds, the project 鈥渉as provided some healing we didn鈥檛 envision when we started.鈥澛�

One volunteer鈥檚 journey

When Mr. Reckinger, a retired oil refinery worker with a midwesterner鈥檚 disarming niceness, started volunteering for the Wall of Faces project, there were roughly 300 Minnesotans killed in the war without a picture on their VVMF profile.聽

He pasted a state map on cardboard and hung it on the wall with sticky notes聽marking their hometowns. Occasionally making 鈥渢wo or three trips for one guy,鈥� since 2014 he鈥檚 dug through local historical society archives and teamed up with librarians to track down photos for 250 soldiers lost in the war.聽

Mr. Reckinger drew a 鈥渧ery low鈥� draft lottery number for the Vietnam War, 鈥渂ut I joined the Navy Reserve for 5 or 6 years so as not to get drafted聽鈥撀營鈥檓 not extremely proud of it,鈥� he says.聽聽

He鈥檚 one of a couple of dozen volunteers who spent several hours a day, and sometimes more, hunting for photos in Minnesota and, when that job was done, other states, joining a band ultimately totaling thousands of volunteers who helped in the collection effort.

Now that the project is complete, their job has evolved into finding more and better photographs for each of the names inscribed on the wall. 鈥淚 always felt that the Vietnam soldiers deserved better,鈥� Mr. Reckinger says. 鈥淚鈥檓 trying to see what a 70-year-old guy sitting in his basement can do.鈥�

It turns out to be a fair amount. After聽the photos of one New York state soldier lost in Vietnam were destroyed in a 2009 fire at his聽mother鈥檚 home, Mr. Reckinger helped track down a relative and found an image.

Then there was David Kern, a Minnesotan who dropped out of 10th grade before school photo day. He鈥檇 left two foster homes and was sleeping in local sheds and cars.聽

He was taken in by a local family and 鈥渢urned his life around鈥� before he died in Vietnam. Mr. Reckinger, working with a local historian, was able to find聽a grainy photo from an obituary. 鈥淚t鈥檚 one of the poorest-quality pictures you鈥檒l ever see,鈥� he says.

Still, Mr. Kern鈥檚 remembrance page on the wall 鈥� which gives biographical information and has room for viewers鈥� comments 鈥撀爃as attracted dozens of notes of thanks from local students and fellow veterans. 鈥淵ou deserved to have a family,鈥� one child wrote.

Surfacing deep feelings

Not all family members have been thrilled to be asked for photos of their loved ones. 鈥淪ome would be very angry: 鈥榊ou can鈥檛 do this 鈥� we didn鈥檛 support the war,鈥欌�� Mr. Tetz says. 鈥淚t took us a long time to get them to work with us and understand we鈥檙e not the government and this is the purpose of what we want to do.鈥�

That purpose is to memorialize, and also create community, he says. On one Wall of Faces remembrance page, a brother recalls ironing his shirt when Corporal Raymond Powell聽鈥撀爓ho enlisted in the Marines at age 17 by taping sand-filled socks to his body to make minimum weight requirements 鈥� came home on leave. 鈥淚 burned myself trying to look good for you,鈥� Warfus Powell Jr. wrote in 2021.聽

A helicopter crew member posted a picture last year of the tiger that killed Corporal Gerald Olmsted聽鈥撀爋ne of three casualties of war caused by big cats.聽

For Jacqueline Smith, who lost her big brother Richard Fina in 1968, the photos hammer home that these were 鈥渟uch young men,鈥� she says.聽

In his last letter to his family, he signed off, 鈥淒on鈥檛 worry about me. I鈥檓 a devout coward.鈥� He wasn鈥檛聽鈥撀爃e was a medical corpsman killed by a sniper while providing aid to fellow servicemen who鈥檇 been shot.

His 51-person platoon had recently been whittled down to 13.聽

When Mr. Reckinger reached out to Ms. Smith for a photo of her brother, it wasn鈥檛 easy, she says. 鈥淚 was 18 when he died, and you put it in a special place. It鈥檚 kind of hard to come back to that after you deal with it so many years ago.鈥澛�

But Mr. Reckinger 鈥渄id it in such a wonderful way,鈥� she says. 鈥淚 just keep thinking my mother would have been so tickled with the recognition.聽

鈥淚f it wasn鈥檛 for the picture, it would just be another name聽鈥撀爕ou read about him and think, 鈥極h, that鈥檚 sad,鈥欌�� she adds. 鈥淏ut you look at their young faces, and it just means so much.鈥澛�