A Maui woman is trying to put a face on one Big Island veteran whose name is engraved on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial wall.
A Maui woman is trying to put a face on one Big Island veteran whose name is engraved on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial wall.
He was Steve Freddie Johnson, a 23-year-old combat medic from Kailua-Kona, who was killed during the conflict in 1970.
And he is one of the last Hawaii veterans whose picture has proven elusive to find.
“I just don’t want this to be the last person we couldn’t find a photo of,” said Janna Hoehn, who has been working to find an image of every American fatality in the Vietnam War for her group’s historical database.
“I have always hoped I could do something for the Vietnam Veterans as a the way they were treated when they returned, it was disgraceful,” she wrote in her reasons for starting on the project.
Now, she’s turning to anyone in West Hawaii to point her in the right direction to find a picture of the young solder.
Johnson was a combat medic with the 326th Medical Battalion of the 101st Airborne Division when he died as a result of a helicopter crash Dec. 14, 1970, while serving in the Thua Thein Province of South Vietnam, according to federal records.
The records only show Kailua-Kona as where he joined, said Hoehn, so it’s possible he was from elsewhere.
He was born Dec. 22, 1946, and never married, although federal records don’t cover other relationships. The federal records list him as a white Protestant with no denominational preference.
Records show his parents were Mr. and Mrs. Henry E. Johnson, who were living in Kailua-Kona at the time of his death, Hoehn said. Records don’t show how long they lived there, she said.
Staff Sgt. Johnson’s mother’s maiden name was Nicholson and she was born in Los Angeles, Hoehn said.
Any information would be helpful, she said, including from what high school Johnson graduated. Based on his age, he likely graduated in 1963, 1964 or 1965.
His body was recovered and he is buried in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, or The Punchbowl.
The photos go to the Wall of Faces of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Foundation, which has collected more than 43,000 photos of the more than 58,000 American service members killed in action in the conflict. All are available online.
The collection includes scanned newspaper photos, high school yearbook shots, post-enlistment portraits and others.
Hoehn said the organization only needs Johnson and fellow soldiers Sgt. 1st Class Alexander Gonzales of Honolulu and Sgt. 1st Class Felicisimo A. Hugo of Wahiawa to finish its efforts. There are 276 fallen veterans from the state, according to the Department of Defense.
“I feel like I know these guys, I’ve been working on it so long,” Hoehn said.
She said additional photos of other fallen service members are welcome.
For more information or to contact Hoehn, visit www.vvmf.org/thewall or email neverforgotten2014@gmail.com
Email Graham Milldrum at gmilldrum@westhawaiitoday.com.