My father has never told me much about his time in Vietnam. What he has told me has to do with being assigned to the "reefer" (short for refrigerator) while everyone else got to go on leave, and many nights of drinking a lot of beer... because he was assigned to the reefer and everyone else was gone.

But I have talked to other Vietnam veterans. If I see someone identified as a veteran by the hat or jacket they have on or the uniform they are wearing, I will go out of my way to thank them for serving our country. But it's the Vietnam vets - particularly the Marines - I will engage in conversation, to find out what they experienced so I get a better understanding of what my father endured.

When I saw a notice about an effort to find photos of all 58,286 fallen Vietnam vets it struck a nerve and I want to put out a call to help.

This actually started with a fellow newspaper publisher from Wisconsin who received a press release from Vietnam Vet Memorial Fund. The VVMF is building an education center near the Vietnam Memorial Wall in Washington, D.C., which will include an electronic "Wall of Faces" putting photos with the names on the Wall.

So far they have around 34,000. There are roughly 1,800 California Vietnam veterans' photos the organization is still seeking, including some from Dublin, Livermore, Pleasanton.

Dublin: Clemmie Brown, Jr.; William Andrew Ruddan.
Pleasanton: Abel Joseph Dela Paz, Jeffrey Lynn Davis, Joseph Cloud Jr., Joseph Mario Cagnacci.
Livermore: Harlan Leslie Hahn, John Chester King, Raymond N. Weber, William Wesley Stewart.

A full list and more information about the project can be found at www.vvmf.org. If you have a photo, please contact me at gallen@embarcaderomediagroup.com and I will make sure the digital version is delivered to the appropriate place.