The Missing

Photos sought of parish vets who died in Vietnam

When the new addition to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial is completed in Washington, D.C., it will feature the faces of more than 58,000 American soldiers lost in the Vietnam War, and Janna Hoehn wants to make sure they include five St. Charles Parish faces.

Hoehn is asking for the photographs of Warren F. Brown of Ama, Chester J. Fontenot of Luling and Eric L. Griffith of Destrehan.

Two others are already in hand: Richard Pollard of New Sarpy, who served in the U.S. Marine Corps and died in Quang Nam on Feb. 22, 1969, and Larry Peter Tregre of Hahnville, who served in the U.S. Army and died April 15, 1969 in Tay Ninh.

Called the Education Center, the $115 million museum will feature their photographs, share objects left at the Wall over the years and include voices of veterans who returned.The Wall monument draws an estimated 4.5 million people a year.

Hoehn is a resident Maui, Hawaii, visited the monument eight years ago and randomly chose a name – Gregory John Crossman – an MIA.

She made a rubbing of his name and, when she returned home, researched his name but found no family. They found a college photo of him. It wasn’t until two years later that she saw a local story about the “Faces Never Forgotten” for the education center.

“The goal is to put a face with every name that is etched on the wall,” she said.

Hoehn sent Crossman’s photo. Five days later, she received an email from Jan Scruggs, founder and president of the Vietnam Wall, who thanked her for the photo and asked if she could help him get photos for 42 Maui County Fallen killed in Vietnam.

“I replied, ‘It would be an honor,’” she said. “I have always hoped I could do something for the Vietnam veterans as the way they were treated when they returned … it was disgraceful.”

What she learned was getting the photos required a lot of research.

She got 10 of them by combing phone books and calling like-named people of the soldiers. Then she went to archived yearbooks for every high school on Maui and found a few more. A look at the library and obituaries produced another three photos, but it wasn’t until she went to the Maui News and they printed an article about her efforts – every six weeks – that she really made headway.

“I started receiving calls from all over the United States sending me photos,” Hoehn said.

Within six months, she had all the requested photos and then turned to her hometown of Hemet, Calif. She found the photos for the five soldiers there.

Then she stepped up her photo searches to the Native American soldiers, which elevated her efforts to a nationwide level from state to state. And that’s when her efforts eventually focused on Louisiana and, more specifically, St. Charles Parish.

“The response has been amazing,” she said. “I have collected over 4,000 photos since 2011. I am taking one state at a time, moving west to east.”

She’s completed numerous states including Montana, Oregon, Idaho, Nevada and more with photos that all will be submitted to the Wall of Faces online memorial, as well as the future Education Center adjacent the Vietnam Wall.And, now for St. Charles Parish, Hoehn is appealing to the public for help.

Anyone with a photo for the requested veterans or information on how to find it can reach Hoehn at neverforgotten2014@gmail.com.

“Putting a face with a name changes the whole dynamic of the Wall, it keeps our Fallen Heroes memories alive and will honor them,” she said. “Our heroes stories and sacrifice will never be forgotten.”