The Wall of Faces Project is an effort to attach more names and stories to the existing memorial in Washington, D.C.
His callsign was Covey.
It was near dusk on Aug. 23, 1967, when United States Air Force Capt. DeRex Williams Jr. was piloting his Cessna O1E “Bird Dog,” an unarmed, fixed wing, propeller-driven aircraft about the size of a pickup truck.
He was 50 feet above the Ho Chi Minh trail in Vietnam, a mountainous area of triple-canopy jungle and dense rainforests. He and an observer from the Marine Corps were on a visual reconnaissance mission looking for signs of North Vietnamese Army convoys coming down the trail, which was often used to transport arms and personnel for opposition forces from north to south Vietnam, through Laos and Cambodia.
While approaching the airstrip at Khe Sahn in the Quang Tri Province of the Republic of South Vietnam, small-arms fire from enemy forces punctured the cockpit and damaged the plane’s engine. Williams suffered multiple injuries from the enemy fire and attempted to crash-land his plane.
He was able to save his observer, but not his own life. At 34, it was the Plant City resident’s second tour in Vietnam.
Fifty years later, thanks to the Wall of Faces project, the memory of Williams’ sacrifice and his visage will be preserved for generations to come.
The Wall of Faces is an effort put forth by the the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund to enhance the commemoration of the more than 58,300 American soldiers who sacrificed their lives during the Vietnam War. The project seeks to add photos and personal stories to those names on the Vietnam Memorial Wall in Washington, D.C.
“They are attaching a photograph or information about that person’s history to the name, so it’s just not a name on a wall,” Shelby Bender, president and executive director of the East Hillsborough Historical Society said. She’s assisting with identifying fallen soldiers from Hillsborough and Polk counties. “They’re giving life to the names.”
Since 2009, the VVMF has collected more than 50,000 photos for the project. The 50,000th addition was courtesy of the efforts led in Florida by Vietnam veterans John Thomstatter and Johnny Byard. The veterans have been spearheading the effort to track down photos of the 1,957 soldiers from Florida, including 163 from Hillsborough County, whose names are on the Wall.
“I think it (the Wall of Faces) is marvelous,” Tobe Anna Robinson, a lifelong friend of Williams, said. “I’m an American and I know what all these Americans and forefathers have provided for us. These people dedicated their lives.”
Williams babysat Robinson when she was young. Nearly 50 years after his death, she holds close to fond memories.
“He was a hoot and a character,” she said. “A smart fly boy.”
She doesn’t much remember the day his wife, Teenye Williams, called to tell Robinson and her family that her longtime friend was killed in action, but she does remember the time he came tearing over a hill near U.S. 92 in a Plymouth Barracuda, towing a nearly 30-foot cabin cruiser.
“Boy,” she said. “My dad chewed him up for carrying that big boat behind that tiny car.”
Teenye Williams died a few years ago. She left Robinson the photos from Williams’ time in the Air Force, along with medals and log books.
“It was the most important thing to get him back to a home area,” Robinson said.
Recently, she donated a box of memorabilia to Bender.
Not long after, Bender was contacted by Thomstatter about helping with the Wall of Faces project.
The idea for the project came to Thomstatter, the secretary of Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter 1036 in the Villages, in February 2016, after he read a newsletter from the national VVA organization.
“I read a story about a state (Hawaii) that had found all their soldiers,” Thomstatter said. “I wondered how many from Florida were missing. I thought this was a great opportunity for our chapter to spearhead this search.”
When he took on the project, Thomstatter said, there were about 780 names without stories or photographs. In the last year, that number has shrunk to just over 300, including about 30 still missing from Hillsborough.
Thomstatter said he’s learned a lot about research in the past year, adding that local genealogists and historians, like Bender, have been “unbelievably important.” The Tampa-Hillsborough Public Library, he added, has also proved an invaluable resource.
“I don’t know all the contacts in the county,” Thomstatter said. “Whereas, these people have contacts, sometimes personal relationships with the families of soldiers, and you can get more information and better photos than just the obituary.”
Thomstatter added that having help, like that provided by Bender, keeps the information accurate. In one instance, one soldier was misidentified in his photo. Bender was able to immediately recognize the error and get the right photo in.
Bender has become Thomstatter’s key contact for Hillsborough, and also has helped gather materials from Polk County. Hillsborough and Polk account for two of the 10 counties that contain about 80% of the missing names. Thomstatter hopes to complete collection from Florida, or at least those counties, by the end of the year.
Thomstatter said the deeper he gets into the project, the more it means and the more he tries to help. He’s reached out to his hometown of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, for help. He’s found photos in neighboring states and even the U.S. Virgin Islands.
“The more you learn, the more you want to continue to find these pictures and create awareness of the sacrifices these soldiers made,” he said.
To Bender, this project is important to recognize the soldiers who gave their lives, many as they were just entering adulthood.
“It’s a recognition of service (and) value of their commitment to serve, which includes the legacy that they left behind,” Bender said. “The ultimate sacrifice.”
A virtual wall of faces is currently available online at VVMF.org. Plans are also underway to construct an education center between the wall and the Lincoln Memorial that will house the photos and stories of the Wall of Faces project.
