GREENFIELD — Roy D. Jordan, a Hoosier and veteran of the U.S. Army, died Dec. 27, 1970, in the Tay Ninh province of Vietnam.
Jordan of Logansport, is honored on panel 5W, row 11 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. But his photo is missing from the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund’s Wall of Faces.
Of the 1,530 Hoosiers killed during the 10-year war, all but 67 have a photo accompanying their name on the Wall of Faces, a website that honors those who made the ultimate sacrifice.
Greenfield resident David Hine, a retired U.S. Air Force veteran, is trying to change that.
He has spent the past six years tracking down photos of Indiana’s Vietnam War dead for inclusion on the wall, located on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund’s website.
The wall includes the name of each of the 58,148 U.S. servicemen and women killed from 1965-75 in Vietnam. It also includes a photo of the veteran if one was provided.
Hine is responsible for finding several hundred missing photos to date, including those of all 11 Hancock County veterans killed during the war.
Ten years ago, the Wall that Heals, a half-scale replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, made a stop in Hancock County. Before its arrival, Hine and several others worked to find photos of Hancock County causalities.
Honoring those who gave their lives in service to their country during that pivotal time is important to Hine, who spent 20 years in the Air Force.
“It was my generation’s war,” Hine said.
His efforts to find those photos revved up when he retired three years ago. Now, he’s on a mission to find at least one photo for each of the dead.
Typically, photos are provided by families, friends or the military. But in some instances, photos — for myriad reasons — prove nearly impossible to find.
Locating family, friends or acquaintances of the veteran can be difficult, but Hine is undeterred by the challenge. He researches library databases and newspaper obituary archives, scours social media and often contacts high schools in hope of finding a yearbook.
“I’ll use any avenue I can find,” Hine said. “If that means just a junior yearbook photo, if for some reason he didn’t finish his senior year, we need to get that junior yearbook photo.”
The country can’t afford to forget any man or woman who died in service, Hine said.
Steve Milbourn, commander of the Greenwood Veterans of Foreign Wars Post, agrees. He’s been helping Hine locate photos for a Greenwood veteran.
Milbourn already found an old yearbook photo of two friends who died in Vietnam. One of those friends didn’t have a photo next to his name on the Wall of Faces, so Milbourn contacted their old high school and procured one from the senior yearbook.
Including a photo with a veteran’s information is a special way to honor the person, to make their service more personal to those who come across the website, Milbourn said.
“It gives more reality when you see an individual’s photograph as opposed to just seeing a blank nothing up there,” he said.
Hancock County Veterans Service Officer Bob Workman commended Hine for his work, saying it’s important to honor residents who gave their lives in the spirit of patriotism, especially those who served in Vietnam.
“The Vietnam veterans were not exactly welcomed home like the veterans now, so it’s important we do everything we can to recognize them,” Workman said. “It’s an important project that he’s doing, and it’s a good reminder to the nation and to the young kids who weren’t alive then.”
Hine doesn’t plan to stop hunting for photos until all 68 veterans have a photo on the Web page, and he hopes that happens before the Wall of Faces is displayed in the education center at the memorial.
“We not only want to remember them because they died for our country; we need to remember them for the life they lived before they died,” he said. “Many of them were fathers, brothers, sons and classmates. We owe it to them to make sure they’re not forgotten.”
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There are 67 veterans whose photos are missing from the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund’s Wall of Faces.
William S. Kleint, Allen County
Rex M. Hoover, Cass County
Roy D. Jordan, Cass County
Johnny L. Young, Clay County
Gregory S. Mundell, Clinton County
Earl D. Miller, DeKalb County
James Norbert Galey, Elkhart County
Jerry D. Clark, Floyd County
Harry E. Mitchell, Grant County
Steven M. Poe, Grant County
Donald J. Smith, Grant County
Benjamin D. Coy Jr., Hamilton County
Daryl L. Lowery, Huntington County
William M. Daulton, Jackson County
Martin D. Goen, Jackson County
James E. Harrell, Jackson County
Thomas A. Stevens, Jackson County
Columbus V. Gross, Jasper County
Leonard I. Moore, Jefferson County
Percy Beasley Jr., Lake County
Calvin C. Nash, Lake
James E. Nunley, Lake
Andrew J. Robertson, Lake
Matthew Woods, Lake
Henry Herbert Measley Jr., LaPorte
George Sherman Goode, Lawrence
Monty D. Prush, Lawrence
Jack Lee Allen, Marion
James O. Allen, Marion
James E. Arnold, Marion
David Colvin, Marion
Everett Frederick Cox, Marion
Ronald Francis Donohue, Marion
William Kenneth Garrity, Marion
Richard Dale Gordon, Marion
Harvey Gene Graham, Marion
Kenneth Lee Hearn, Marion
Ralph Edward Johnson, Marion
David Coleman Kays, Marion
Ronnie Lee Logan, Marion
Horace Gibbs Mitchell Jr., Marion
Carl Wayne Phillips, Marion
Roy Rogers Roark, Marion
Bradley Andrew Saint Clair, Marion
Michael Lynn Scisney, Marion
James Nelson Steen, Marion
James Edward Taylor, Marion
Harry Allen Watson, Marion
Michael Francis Weissert, Marion
Kenneth Eugene Willard Jr., Marion
Bobby Joe Wilson, Marion
Samuel Henry Howard, Montgomery
Hollis Garnell Maple, Newton
James William Ragle, Pike
William Arnold Westlake, Randolph
Clarence Bowman Jr., Scott
Charles Wayne Richardson, Shelby
Tadeusz Jan Borowski, St. Joseph
Donnie Ray Harley, St. Joseph
Larry Floyd Jankowski, St. Joseph
Paul Michael Roberts, St. Joseph
William Julius Safrit, St. Joseph
Robert Paul Sheely, St. Joseph
John Van Driessche, St. Joseph
Robert Joe Hardesty, Tippecanoe
David Leroy Howard, Tippecanoe
William Robert Jennett, Tippecanoe
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David Hine encourages any resident who might have photos of one of the 67 Hoosiers without one on the Vietnam Veteran Memorial Fund’s Wall of Faces to send a copy to him. The more photos, the merrier, he said.
Hine can be contact by emailing [email protected].
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