Wall of Faces project to honor Vietnam casualties nears completion; all Pennsylvania photos found

On March 29, 1973, combat and combat support units withdrew from South Vietnam, and the Vietnam War Veterans Recognition Act of 2017 permanently designates that date every year as National Vietnam War Veterans Day.

It is a time not only to recognize the service of U.S. soldiers in Vietnam, but also to acknowledge that recognition and respect did not happen for many of them upon their return home.

“They didn’t get the welcome home that previous eras of veterans had gotten, and anything we can do to recognize those who were lost, and those who came home, is important,” said Matt Zamosky, director of the Westmoreland County Department of Veteran Affairs.

More than 2 million Americans served in uniform in Vietnam and Southeast Asia.

“This is a day set aside to publicly thank, honor and support our Vietnam veterans and their families for their incredible service and sacrifice,” said Maj. Gen. Mark Schindler, Pennsylvania’s adjutant general and head of the state’s Department of Military and Veterans Affairs (DMVA).

Over the course of the war, more than 47,000 combat troops, and more than 58,000 Americans in total, lost their lives. They are memorialized not just on the national Vietnam Wall monument in Washington, D.C., but also through the digital Wall of Faces project, which now includes photos of all 3,150 Pennsylvanians who lost their lives during the war.

Over a four-year period, the DMVA partnered with the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund to track down photos of everyone whose name appears on “The Wall.”

In Westmoreland, research fell to Zamosky and former clerk Megan Wilford, who spent hours digging through local resources including military records and high school yearbooks as well as working with regional funeral homes, cemeteries and historical societies.

“She jumped in with both feet and was tenacious about tracking down those names,” Zamosky said.

In 2019, state officials announced that photos of all Pennsylvania’s Vietnam dead had been located and added to the Wall of Faces. Ninety-seven Westmoreland County residents were killed while serving in Vietnam, according to the county’s Vietnam war memorial. The final eight photos needed from Westmoreland County were Clifford Gibson, James Morrison, Delbert Singler, James McClelland, William Gamble, Frank Hiteshue, Pietro Piconi and Edward Whalen.

Sometimes the connection was made in unexpected places: A maintenance worker who cleans the Westmoreland VA office in the evenings turned out to be the great nephew of Army veteran Raymond Feld of Grapeville, who was killed in action in January 1969.

Others, including Frank Hiteshue, proved even more difficult to track down. Wilford said he was an only child, his obituary did not list any aunts or uncles and he graduated from a place — Penn Joint High School — that no longer exists.

Nationwide, fewer than 80 photos are needed to complete the Wall of Faces.

Regardless of whether their photos are available, Schindler said their memory needs to be preserved.

“Today, we need to take time out of our own lives to remember theirs,” he said. “Those who have fallen, and those who are our own relatives, neighbors or community members. We want every Vietnam veteran to know just how much their bravery and sacrifices are appreciated — not just on March 29, but every day of the year.”

Zamosky said the Wall of Faces is a unique way to pay tribute that could not have happened just a few decades ago.

“The Vietnam Wall, to me, was the first (war) memorial that really had a personal feel to it,” he said. “So to be able to engage it online and put a face to those names is kind of amazing, and it’s something that could really only happen now.”

Visit VVMF.org to view the Wall of Faces project.