NORFOLK, Va. (WVEC) --They're looking for a few good men and women. 58,000 of them to be exact.
The Wall of Faces project is underway to put a photograph with each of the 58,195 names on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington, D.C.
The Commonwealth of Virginia has 1,307 names on the wall. Of them, 763 already have photos submitted, but that leaves 544 faceless.
"People are familiar with the wall, the Vietnam veterans wall, and what they want to do is create digital images, pictures, stories," said Bert Schmidt, president and CEO of WHRO Public Television. "And each of those names. So they're collecting many of those already, but there are a lot that are missing and in Virginia there's over 500 names missing, so we're helping collect those stories."
With local sponsors WHRO, Nauticus and the Slover Library, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund has launched this new journey for the 33-year-old monument. Harnessing the power of the Internet, the Foundation is building an education center, to tell the personal stories of each of the fallen.
Of course, nothing could be more personal than showing people what the service men and women looked like, and telling the story of how they died serving their country.
A web site is already under construction, for those who can't make the trek to D.C.
WHRO's Schmidt is proud his organization can help.
"And this really brings those stories to life. So the pictures of these soldiers, their stories, we think it's an important story to tell." he said.