Fewer than 100 photos needed to complete The Wall of Faces

(01/27/2021 – 3:00 pm EST)

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund (VVMF) is pleased to announce a major milestone in the effort to find a photo for every service member on The Wall in Washington, D.C. Of the 58,279 names inscribed on The Wall, fewer than 100 photos are now needed to complete the effort.

Photo of U.S. Army SSGT Alfred P. Clayton

VVMF’s Wall of Faces effort aims to connect a face and a story to each of the 58,279 service members with names inscribed on The Wall so that future generations will better understand the impact of the Vietnam War on American families. Each name represents a life cut short and a family changed forever by their loss. Putting a face to every name helps further preserve their legacies.

The photo that brought us below the 100-photo milestone was of U.S. Army SSGT Alfred Patrick Clayton of New York, New York. Clayton made the ultimate sacrifice on Dec. 8, 1968 in the Bien Hoa Province of Vietnam. His name is inscribed on Panel West 37, Line 62 of The Wall.

Three states and one U.S. territory are still missing photos of service members who sacrificed their lives in the Vietnam War. They are:

California

Georgia

New York

Puerto Rico

As we get closer to completing the Wall of Faces, VVMF has enlisted the public’s help to find additional high-quality photos. Approximately 20% of the photos presently displayed are considered poor quality yet each service member deserves to have the best photo available. The Wall of Faces has a feature where the public can search for those who need a better photo, in addition to searching for those who are missing a photo. With the prevalence of online photo sources (newspapers, yearbooks, and other media), it’s easier to supplement photos already submitted with those of higher quality. To search and see what photos are still needed, and for whom better photos are needed, an advanced search can be done at: www.vvmf.org/wall-of-faces.

VVMF thanks the hundreds of volunteers around the country who have been instrumental in locating these photos. Because of their tenacious effort, more than 58,000 service members who sacrificed their lives in Vietnam now have photos posted to the Wall of Faces.

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund is the nonprofit organization that built The Wall in Washington, D.C. To learn more about VVMF and the Wall of Faces, please visit: www.vvmf.org.