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‘Faces Never Forgotten’ Campaign Seeks Fallen Vietnam Vets Photos

LUZERNE — One government agency is hoping to find more than 600 photos of Pennsylvania natives who sacrificed their lives in the Vietnam War. It’s a...
otr veterans

LUZERNE -- One government agency is hoping to find more than 600 photos of Pennsylvania natives who sacrificed their lives in the Vietnam War.

It's all part of the "Faces Never Forgotten" campaign.

The Department of Military and Veterans affairs is working with the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund to collect photos for each of the 58,307 men and women whose names are on the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, D.C.

Since the program started in 2009, approximately 41,000 photos have been found around the country. Only 606 photos are still needed of the 3,148 service members from Pennsylvania.

Patrick Herron was just 18 years old when he left for Vietnam, leaving behind his family in Sugar Notch, Luzerne County.

Brian Herron says his oldest brother wanted to go, voluntarily enlisting.

"My dad was pretty upset about it because my dad served in World War II and he said do you know what you're getting yourself in for and he said, 'Yeah, I do,'" said Brian. "He saw all these coffins coming back and he said, 'Dad, I got to go. I got to do my part.'"

But Patrick was only in country for five months when he was killed in the line of duty in September 1967 at the age of 19.

Brian was 13 years old, but remembers the day the family was notified like it was yesterday.

"They knocked on the door. There were two officers and my mom knew right away what happened," said Brian. "He was killed in action, September 6, 1967. For 11 years my dad mourned. He never got over it. He thought Pat was still a prisoner of war and they said, 'No sir, he was killed in action.'"

Now the country Patrick died serving is trying to further honor him and the all the others who were killed in Vietnam.

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund has been collecting photographs of the more than 58,000 men and women listed on the Vietnam Memorial Wall in Washington, D.C.

According to Pennsylvania`s Department of Military and Veterans Affairs, there are 600 names from Pennsylvania that still do not have matching photos, including Patrick Herron's.

Brian plans to fix that by sending a photo as soon as possible.

"I think it's great. I think it's a great thing. You finally got a face with the name. When you look at the wall, you see the names, you just don`t know what the person looked like. They're just a brother, a dad, an uncle."

Click here for a complete list of Pennsylvania service members whose photos are needed.

If you need more information about how to add a photo to the collection, head here.

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