Veterans Intrigued By New Online Vietnam Memorial

Site gives them new ways to share thoughts and reflect
by Robert M. Cook, Fosters.com

Left, Foster’s file photo Robert Jones, director of the Northeast chapter of the POW/MIA Network in Meredith, said the new online Vietnam Veterans Memorial Web site launched last week by Footnote.com and the National Archives in Washington, D.C., will make it easier for veterans and the families to access information about their loved ones.

DOVER — Veterans are using a new website with Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall information to reconnect with their pasts and reflect on the sacrifices made by more than 58,000 service members who died in the war.

They say they hope family members and friends of soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines killed in action will do the same.

"What’s good about it is that everybody can get to it now," said Marshall Lee Quandt of Exeter, a Vietnam War veteran.

The National Archives joined forces with footnote.com to launch the website. The site, www.go.footnote.com/thewall, lets the public access historical records of tens of thousands of deceased Vietnam War veterans electronically for the first time. People can search by name, hometown, birth date, tour date or dozens of other categories. The interactive wall also lets people post photographs they may have of a deceased veteran and leave comments…

Quandt, who serves as a Republican House representative, served in Vietnam as an Army staff sergeant in An Khe and Pleiku in the Central Highlands from 1969 to 1970. He said he served with the Fourth Criminal Investigation Division and remembers some of his fellow soldiers who were killed during his tour.

He said there are some veterans who always have wanted to travel to Washington, D.C., and see the memorial, but can’t because of age or other factors. The new site will make it easier for them, he said.

Although the nation is now at war in Iraq and Afghanistan, Quandt said it’s important for the country to remember the sacrifices made 40 years ago in Southeast Asia.

A search of the 238 soldiers from New Hampshire who were killed in the war, which lasted from 1965 to 1975, includes people like Army Sgt. James B. Bartlett of Portsmouth, who was 23 years old when he was killed by small-arms fire on July 2, 1966. The names also include 1st Lt. Michael Lewis Geister of Rye, who was also 23 and died on March 16, 1970. Other soldiers include Marine Corps Staff Sgt. Thomas Philip O’Neill of Dover, who was 27 when he was killed by small-arms fire on March 14, 1970.

Robert Jones of Meredith, who chairs the Northeast chapter of the P.O.W./M.I.A. Network, which holds weekly vigils in Hesky Park, said he was so impressed with the new site that he included it on his group’s home page.

"Anything that gives people accurate information is wonderful," said Jones, who served as a Navy corpsman during Vietnam in the 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines Division from 1966 to 1967 and was wounded twice.

He said he’s visited the memorial in Washington, D.C., several times and was there when it was dedicated in 1982.

Jones said the site makes it easier for people to find the name of fallen troops. As a former medic, Jones said there were many times when a fellow service member would get wounded in battle and be evacuated to a hospital, but the soldiers left behind never would know if they survived or not.

He said the site would make it easier for people to do a quick search of particular soldier’s name, and if it did not come up, it would be cause for relief. If the name did appear, then at least they could find out what happened, Jones said.

Footnote.com officials said the site took almost 1,500 individual photos that were stitched together to create one single image. The process took more than five months and resulted in an image that is nearly five gigapixels in size, according to information the company has posted online.

"Footnote.com is about discovering, discussing and sharing the stories of our past," Russell Wilding, CEO of Footnote.com, has said. "We know that there are many untold experiences represented on that Wall, and we hope that this interactive version of the memorial helps those affected by the war by sharing their stories."

Tim Beebe, director of the regional office of Vet Centers in the Northeast in Manchester, said he’s concerned about how viewing the site could affect some veterans who may have unresolved feelings about the war.

"I think that something like that is difficult to deal with alone," said Beebe, an Army veteran who served in Vietnam with the 1st Air Cavalry Division in An Khe from 1966 to 1967.

He said he’s escorted bus tours of Vietnam and Korean War veterans to Washington, and he always found it helpful to talk to them about their feelings before they arrived so they’d be emotionally prepared.

He said he hopes veterans who choose to view the site at home will view it with someone else and not go it alone.

Facts about The Interactive Wall

• At full size, The Wall image on Footnote is about 460 feet wide (400,000 pixels wide by 12,500 pixels tall).
• We found 58,320 names inscribed on The Wall.
• There are about 70 names which are duplicates or misspellings. 26 names are listed as "not KIA".

–>

• 8 names are women.
• 2,056 are listed as "body not recovered."
• Average age is 22.8 years old.
• 6,301 images were photographed by Peter Krogh
• Darren Higgins used six computers to stitch 1,494 images into a single 5 gigapixel image of The Wall.

 

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