LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – A nationwide search for photos of fallen Vietnam War soldiers has reached Lake County.
Janna Hoehn, a resident of Maui, has for the last several years conducted a search for photos as part of “The Wall of Faces,” which is seeking to collect pictures of America’s casualties and MIAs of the Vietnam War.
The Wall of Faces, part of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, has a goal of “putting a face with every name etched on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington, D.C.”
The online portrait gallery can be found at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund's Web site, http://www.vvmf.org/ .
At present, there are more than 58,286 names etched on the wall. Photos of more than 32,000 have been secured, Hoehn said.
The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund lists five Lake County men who died in Vietnam: Lewis D. Grothe and David C. Lindberg of Lakeport, Paul W. Hill of Upper Lake, Robert T. Mills of the Clearlake Highlands and George L. Silva of Nice.
The Wall of Faces has collected photos of all but Silva, and Hoehn is issuing an appeal for help in finding a photo of the young soldier, who died in February 1969 at the age of 20.
Hoehn is requesting that any Lake County residents who may have information about Silva or his family email her at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .
Hoehn said she began searching for photos of the Vietnam fallen after visiting the Vietnam Wall five years ago with her husband.
She did an etching of a name she chose randomly on the wall, that of Gregory John Crossman. She subsequently researched Crossman and tried to find his family. A cousin helped her find a photo of Crossman.
Two years later, she saw a local news segment about a call for photos for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund. She immediately sent in the photo she had of Crossman, and five days later received an email from Jan Scruggs, the founder and president of the Vietnam Wall.
“He asked if I could help him find the photos for the 42 Maui County Soldiers that were killed in Vietnam,” said Hoehn.
Once she finished finding all the Maui County photos, she worked to find the six soldiers who came from her childhood home in the Hemet and San Jacinto area in California.
After that, she became involved in trying to locate photos of Native American soldiers, which, in turn, evolved into searching for all Vietnam War soldiers in the counties of Riverside, San Bernardino, Sacramento, Imperial, Kern, Lassen County and Placer.
Presently, she is conducting searches for photos in Sonoma, Fresno, Nevada and Napa counties.
“Next on my list is Lake County,” she said.
Hoehn said she would appreciate hearing from any relatives, friends or classmates of Lake County's fallen Vietnam veterans.