03/29/2024
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A Bladen County man is one of about 100 U.S. service members who were killed during the Vietnam War and no photo is available to go along side more than 58,000 others on the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, DC.
 
Volunteers with the fund’s Faces Never Forgotten project are attempting to find photographs of every soldier memorialized on the wall.
 
The lone Bladen County soldier with no photo is David Smith, II of Elizabethtown (1947-1968).
 
Nearly 2,000 North Carolinians died in the Vietnam War,about 70 remain faceless according to Janna Hoehm, a former Fayetteville resident now living in Hawaii and serves as a team leader for Faces Never Forgotten.
 
Hoehm was quoted as saying, “it is an honor to help put a face to every name on the wall, but it is has not been easy.”
She is working with Jim and Tom Reece, brothers who live in Wilmington.
 
If you know anyone associated with David Smith, II, you are encouraged to contact Drew Brooks, Military editor of the Fayetteville Observer.  His contact info is brooksd@fayobserver.com or call 910-488-3567.
 
The supporters of the effort are nearing the end of the their efforts to find a photograph for each service member killed in the Vietnam War.
 
Smith is the last faceless Bladen County serviceman

 

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