Mississippi X

Mississippi was the state that started it all. I tell some of that story here if you care to take a look at the earliest posts on A Means To Heal.

While visiting I noticed that there were a number of names listed without actual photos, so now all these years later, I decides to see if any of those photos had been found through the efforts of the VVMF's efforts to put a face to every name. According to WLOX there are still 65 photos missing from the memorial. This seems high to me so i will post any new info if I run across it.

This project, originally intended to present a picture of every face at the (now defunct) Education Center at The Wall in DC.

 

 

As I mentioned in an earlier post, when I took these photos I was not thinking about posting individual faces, so I did not properly record the names. If you know these men, please let me know and I will gladly update. 

These faces and most of the 669 lost from Mississippi can be found at the Ocean Springs Memorial, about 10 miles East of Biloxi, Mississippi on Rte 90. Watch for it on the right as you head East.

Next time, on the the of May 21, we will venture, again, to  Montana to honor a few of the fallen, so, join me, as always, at 9:00 am.

If you are following along at all, you will have seen that a number of you, like Joan from Wisconsin, Tony from Texas, Mike from Maryland, Ron from Florida, Tim from Virginia, Molly from Florida, Colleen from Pennsylvania, Elli from Maryland, and Peg and Ray from Florida, among others, have responded to my request to send me memorials you have seen in your area or where you may have traveled. I even got one from Ireland! These submissions help expand the knowledge of how we have remembered the men and women who served and/or were lost in 'Nam and you help to honor them. If you have any such photos, I would love to see them. Please send them along to the email at the left and I will gladly share them here.

I hope all those listed here will encourage you to send along photos.

Next time, on the 21st of May, we will venture, again, to Montana to honor a few of the fallen, so, join me, as always, at 9:00 am.

If you are following along at all, you will have seen that a number of you, like Joan from Wisconsin, Tony from Texas, Mike from Maryland, Ron from Florida, Tim from Virginia, Molly from Florida, Colleen from Pennsylvania, Elli from Maryland, and Peg and Ray from Florida, among others, have responded to my request to send me memorials you have seen in your area or where you may have traveled. I even got one from Ireland! These submissions help expand the knowledge of how we have remembered the men and women who served and/or were lost in 'Nam and you help to honor them. If you have any such photos, I would love to see them. Please send them along to the email at the left and I will gladly share them here.

I hope all those listed here will encourage you to send along photos.

Minnesota X

In a past post I told the story of asking for directions in South Dakota and ended up in Minnesota, I recount that story here if you would care to check it out.

Among the other features of the Jasper Cemetery are, of course, names and here are a few of them today.

I was unsure if these names were of the lost or among the millions that served due to the way they were listed at the site.. I went to The Wall of Faces ( https://www.vvmf.org/Wall-of-Faces/ ) and determined that these, blessedly, are among those that served. One of them is the husband of the nice woman who took me to this site.

Next time, on the 16th of May, we will venture, again, to Mississippi to honor a few of the fallen, so, join me, as always, at 9:00 am.

If you are following along at all, you will have seen that a number of you, like Joan from Wisconsin, Tony from Texas, Mike from Maryland, Ron from Florida, Tim from Virginia, Molly from Florida, Colleen from Pennsylvania, Elli from Maryland, and Peg and Ray from Florida, among others, have responded to my request to send me memorials you have seen in your area or where you may have traveled. I even got one from Ireland! These submissions help expand the knowledge of how we have remembered the men and women who served and/or were lost in 'Nam and you help to honor them. If you have any such photos, I would love to see them. Please send them along to the email at the left and I will gladly share them here.

I hope all those listed here will encourage you to send along photos.

Michigan XVII

I return to Michigan to honor a couple more of those lost in our efforts in 'Nam. These three were among those listed at a memorial I chanced upon in Macomb County. 

You can see the original posts here and here.

It saddens me to say that this is the only picture VVMFs Wall of Faces seems to have. It will have to do, I suppose, but it in no way diminishes his sacrifice, service or heroism.

 

These are but three honored here. I will post others in the not too distant future.

These are all located in Freedom Hill County Park, along 16 Mile Road in Macomb County, Michigan.

Next time, on the 11th of May, we will venture, again, to Minnesota to honor a few of the fallen, so, join me, as always, at 9:00 am.

If you are following along at all, you will have seen that a number of you, like Joan from Wisconsin, Tony from Texas, Mike from Maryland, Ron from Florida, Tim from Virginia, Molly from Florida, Colleen from Pennsylvania, Elli from Maryland, and Peg and Ray from Florida, among others, have responded to my request to send me memorials you have seen in your area or where you may have traveled. I even got one from Ireland! These submissions help expand the knowledge of how we have remembered the men and women who served and/or were lost in 'Nam and you help to honor them. If you have any such photos, I would love to see them. Please send them along to the email at the left and I will gladly share them here.

I hope all those listed here will encourage you to send along photos.

Massachusetts XXXVII

I have written about the memorial i found in Charlestown, Massachusetts before, you can find those posts here and here.

As The Wall of Faces project progressed, more and, more actual photographs of the faces of the names on The Wall became available. This, of course, was the point.

The brick and mortar Education Center at The Wall was never completed but the on-line Wall of Faces isn available and I have referenced here a number of times. ( THE WALL OF FACES - Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund)

I got thinking about the fact that in the second of my posts from the site in Charlestown that I had used the images on the memorial as the base for my Faces of Remembrance post about these lost heroes. I decided that they should be properly honored by using their actual photos.

The following are the six men from Charlestown who faces are represented non their memorial.

Edward Lee Johnson

Lawrence Thomas Borden

William James McNamara

These photos were all taken directly from the official portraits at VVMF and have been lightly processed by me. The quality of the available pictures varies greatly as is obvious here. Never the less, I will use photos at every opportunity to honor our lost brothers and sisters.

Next time, on the 6th of May, we will venture, again, to  Michigan to honor a few of the fallen, so, join me, as always, at 9:00 am.

If you are following along at all, you will have seen that a number of you, like Joan from Wisconsin, Tony from Texas, Mike from Maryland, Ron from Florida, Tim from Virginia, Molly from Florida, Colleen from Pennsylvania, Elli from Maryland, and Peg and Ray from Florida, among others, have responded to my request to send me memorials you have seen in your area or where you may have traveled. I even got one from Ireland! These submissions help expand the knowledge of how we have remembered the men and women who served and/or were lost in 'Nam and you help to honor them. If you have any such photos, I would love to see them. Please send them along to the email at the left and I will gladly share them here.

I hope all those listed here will encourage you to send along photos.

Maryland XLVI

 This story is kind of round about and covers several years.

A number of years ago, I met a guy who called himself "Bear," never knew his given or last name: 'Nam vet, fit the profile. 

Bear told me about a memorial in Maryland, in a place called Helen. He described where and what is was and I decided that sometime I would visit.

He told me that it wasn't very big as Helen was not a big town .

He was right and what he probably didn't know at the time was that it had been basically forgotten about. If not forgotten, then certainly neglected. It was small and almost completely covered in weeds and other wild growth. I could not read what was on the memorial.

I took a picture or two, but then, I too, just forgot about it.  There was nothing to post, no pics of any value, nothing to say: just more forgotten and ignored vets. Par for the course.

Well, now, several years later I found myself in the area once again. I decided to stop by and was astonished at how it had changed. Much for the better I am pleased to report. 

It is all cleaned up and has what appear to be new stones engraved with names of many. It obviously honors more than 'Nam vets. Maybe it always did but I could not tell the first time I was in Helen.

As is my habit, I was carrying my camera and lenses. I took any number of pics and was happy that I chanced to see it once more. 

Most of the cameras I have owned over time have informed me that there was no film, or memory card, whatever, in the camera, so I have gotten very used to just grabbing my camera and shooting pictures or being warned about the lack of storage media. Never gave it a thought.

I know you can see what is coming.

Got home, several hours and many miles later, opened the camera and NO media storage, no card, therefore, no pictures. ( I am sure there is a toggle to turn on that "No card in camera" notice and will make every effort to toggle it the next time I remember!

I will leave out what I said next.

After ensuring I had media I made a return trip to Helen (double checked the camera first) and took some pics. 

 You will see the next time I post from here the difference in the "new" stones vs. this original plaque

Next time, on the 1st of May, we will venture, again, to Massachusetts, so, join me, as always, at 9:00 am.

If you are following along at all, you will have seen that a number of you, like Joan from Wisconsin, Tony from Texas, Mike from Maryland, Ron from Florida, Tim from Virginia, Molly from Florida, Colleen from Pennsylvania, Elli from Maryland, and Peg and Ray from Florida, among others, have responded to my request to send me memorials you have seen in your area or where you may have traveled. I even got one from Ireland! These submissions help expand the knowledge of how we have remembered the men and women who served and/or were lost in 'Nam and you help to honor them. If you have any such photos, I would love to see them. Please send them along to the email at the left and I will gladly share them here.

I hope all those listed here will encourage you to send along photos.

Louisiana VIII

In what I believe was my very first post from Louisiana, I commented that the state seemed to have no official memorial but, that there were two in New Orleans.

That was June 11, 2012. Now, I just read that an official Louisiana State Memorial, honoring all 885 lost, was dedicated on Saturday March 29,2025: the 30th anniversary of the fall of Saigon.

Congratulations Louisiana.

Until I can get back to Louisiana, I will continue to try to honor those lost or who served in any way that I can.

One of the very first pictures I ever took in the state was not far from the airport at Dignity Memorial Gardens and seems to honor a number of Air Force vets who were captured. (This is one of the times I hope to hear from someone more knowledgeable that I am as I cannot track down information on the site.)

These names are crops from the 35 names listed here. Some are so weathered that they hard to read.

 

 

These photos were taken from the Wall of Faces, part of VVMF's effort to gather a face for every name on The Wall. You can see the thousands more they have collected here.

Next time, on the 26th of April, we will venture, again, to  Maryland, so, join me, as always, at 9:00 am.

If you are following along at all, you will have seen that a number of you, like Joan from Wisconsin, Tony from Texas, Mike from Maryland, Ron from Florida, Tim from Virginia, Molly from Florida, Colleen from Pennsylvania, Elli from Maryland, and Peg and Ray from Florida, among others, have responded to my request to send me memorials you have seen in your area or where you may have traveled. I even got one from Ireland! These submissions help expand the knowledge of how we have remembered the men and women who served and/or were lost in 'Nam and you help to honor them. If you have any such photos, I would love to see them. Please send them along to the email at the left and I will gladly share them here.

I hope all those listed here will encourage you to send along photos.

Kentucky VIII

As you might guess, when I speak about this project I am always asked "which one is your favorite?"

I always explain that I love them all and that the "one I am standing in front of..." is always foremost in my mind.

Having said that, I will always mention the Kentucky memorial in Frankfort. It is just spectacular in its carefully thought out design and purpose. 

You can read about more of this here in my original post from Kentucky.

In keeping with my long term goal of honoring as many as I can, today, these names are from the plaza awaiting the passing of the shadow from the gnomon to touch, honor, and remember them: a reminder to us all.

These names were taken from the plaza in Frankfort and the photos are from Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund's Wall of Faces.

You can check out all the photos at:

https://www.vvmf.org/Wall-of-Faces

Next time, on the 21st of April, we will venture, again, to Louisiana, so, join me, as always, at 9:00 am.

If you are following along at all, you will have seen that a number of you, like Joan from Wisconsin, Tony from Texas, Mike from Maryland, Ron from Florida, Tim from Virginia, Molly from Florida, Colleen from Pennsylvania, Elli from Maryland, and Peg and Ray from Florida, among others, have responded to my request to send me memorials you have seen in your area or where you may have traveled. I even got one from Ireland! These submissions help expand the knowledge of how we have remembered the men and women who served and/or were lost in 'Nam and you help to honor them. If you have any such photos, I would love to see them. Please send them along to the email at the left and I will gladly share them here.

I hope all those listed here will encourage you to send along photos.