As we approach Memorial Day, it seems fitting that a challenge has been issued to La Plata County residents: Does anyone have a photo of Troy Dean Wilhite?
Born in 1945, Wilhite, who died in Vietnam in 1969, is buried at Greenmount Cemetery, because his wife, Margaret A. Wilhite, was living here at the time. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund is seeking his picture for its Wall of Faces.
The request comes not directly from the organization itself but from a woman who is on a mission after visiting the Vietnam War Memorial and taking a rubbing of a name etched on the black wall of granite. She didn’t know the soldier, Gregory John Crossman, who was missing in action, but decided she would track down the family and send them the rubbing, hoping to get a photo in return.
“On and off for six months, I researched every way possible and never found any family,” said Janna Hoehn, who lives in Maui, Hawaii. “I was quite disappointed, however, I had one more possibility, my cousin, our family historian.”
Six weeks later, her cousin found a college photo of Crossman. Two years later, Hoehn saw a local news story about the “Faces Never Forgotten,” the memorial fund’s campaign to have a photo for every one of the 58,307 names etched on the wall, and she sent that photo to them.
Five days later, Jan Scruggs, a Vietnam War veteran, who led the effort to build the wall, emailed Hoehn, asking her to help find photos for the 42 soldiers from Maui County who had died in the war. Six months of requests in the newspaper, reading obituaries, phone book searches and seeking yearbooks ensued.
“I always wanted to be a detective,” she said.
By May 2013, she had expanded the search.
“Colorado is my eighth state,” she said. “It would be nice to mark La Plata County off the list.”
Hoehn stopped counting how many photos she has collected at 1,400. All told, the effort has brought in more than 41,000 photos.
But more than 17,000 remain to be collected, and Wilhite is one of them.
“Putting a face with the name changes the whole dynamic of the Wall,” she said. “It keeps our fallen heroes’ memories alive and will honor them. Our heroes’ stories and sacrifice will never be forgotten.”
abutler@durangoherald.com
For more information
Submit any photos or information to Hoehn at neverforgotten2014@gmail.com.
Visit www.vvmf.org/thewall to learn more about the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund or the Education Center it is planning to build next to the memorial.
