2 more Vietnam vets sought
Published 5:01 am Saturday, May 20, 2017
In the Jan. 14-15, 2017, edition of The Daily News, a story was published about a woman in Hawaii who was on a mission to gather pictures of Vietnam soldiers killed in action for inclusion on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund web site.
In the state of Louisiana six months ago there were 280 without pictures. Now, Janna Hoehn said that number is now down to 94.
Ten men from Washington Parish died in Vietnam. One was from Franklinton, one was from Varnado, and eight were from Bogalusa. In January, in order to get her message to the public, Hoehn gave the Daily News the names of the five “Fallen Heroes” in this parish that had no pictures.
“I wanted to give you an update of my progress with finding the photos of our Fallen Heroes from Washington Parish,” she recently wrote, in an email. “I have received three of the five because of the newspaper article. We are down to needing only two more photos to complete Washington Parish.
“The photos will go onto the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund Wall of Faces page. Out of 58,315 photos needed, we are down to needing only 6,609 now. Personally, I have submitted over 5,000 photos.
“The state of Louisiana had 885 young men whom died in Vietnam. Washington Parish had ten. I would love to complete Washington Parish.”
Now, as Memorial Day draws near, Hoehn reports she is down to just needing pictures of two men — both from Bogalusa. They are James W. Blackmon, who was born in 1932 and died in 1970; and Albert J. Peters, who was born in 1945 and died in 1968.
Anyone who has a picture of Blackmon or Peters is asked to send it to Hoehn at neverforgotten2014@gmail.com. She asks that everybody share this message and her email address.
To view the photos that have been collected, go to www.vvmf.org/thewall behind the search box, click on Advanced Search, type Washington Parish in the county box, then choose Louisiana and hit submit. Leave all the other spaces blank. All profiles for the parish will come up. Anyone with a generic photo means the project doesn’t yet have a photograph of that subject.