With Memorial Day approaching, National Newspaper Association President Andrew Johnson put out a call to 11 states plus the Washington D.C. area to help complete the Wall of Faces project honoring those who died in the Vietnam War.
Johnson, who also is a past president of the WNA and WNA Foundation, made the call in this month’s issue of the Publishers’ Auxiliary. He asked the community newspapers in those 11 states, along with their newspaper associations and local journalism schools, to make this year’s Memorial Day edition “extra special” by finding the missing photos.
In 2014, Johnson spearheaded the effort to find more than 400 missing photos of Wisconsin natives killed in Vietnam. By October 2015, they had all been found and added to the Virtual Wall of Faces.
The project also is one “near and dear” to Johnson’s heart. His son, 1st Lt. David Johnson, was killed in Afghanistan in 2012. As Gold Star parents, Johnson and his wife, Laura, also have rallied behind the Gold Star Memorial Trail, which has completed its first phase of construction.
