THE WALL OF FACES

Thank you for your service to our country so long ago sir. The remembrances from your sister Michelle are poignant and reflect the anguish experienced by so many who lost loved ones in this war. As long as you are remembered you will always be with us…..

Jimmy, my dad, Sergeant William Wheeler speaks of you often and your sacrifice for our country. Thank you for your service!

This Veterans Day I’m thinking of you Jimmy with love and honor as I often do. I will forever keep your memory alive. Always your little sister, Michelle

Thinking of my wonderful brother on Veterans Day with love and honor. I’ll forever keep your memory alive. Love always, your little sister Michelle

Dear Cousin Jimmy,

I heard stories about you growing up. My mom told me of her kindhearted cousin who had wanted to be a Maryknoll Brother or Father, and went into the seminary, but was killed in Vietnam. I remember drawing pictures of you in a project I did for school, when I was asked to draw my family. I wanted you to be included in our family portrait even though you had passed away, and even though I had no pictures of you.

It would be another 30 years before I would search online and find more about your story, and finally find these pictures of you. Seeing your smile, and seeing you blowing up a balloon for a Vietnamese child, confirmed that you were always just the man I thought you were, and hoped you to be.

Your convictions to follow God's call into the most dangerous and marginalized corner of the world, as Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers are called to do, brought you to an altogether unexpected calling - a would-be Priest who gave up even that great sacrificial life for an even greater sacrifice ... to lay down your life for the Vietnamese people you loved, and for the brothers you served with. My mom told me, when asked about what you did on Vietnam, 'we think he was helping the village people.' Because you cared so much about the suffering of the poor and marginalized and oppressed, and you sought to protect them from harm. All soldiers enter the service for different reasons, but yours was rare and unique. You served a higher call, and followed it to the end. For as Jesus said, "no greater love hath he than that he would lay down his life for his friends."

God bless you always, and pray for us, Cousin Jimmy, because I believe you are in Heaven, and that your calling and your willingness to follow it unto death for the people you served led you there.

Love, your cousin,

Kate Johnson Kiefer