A yearbook photo of Lt. Ronald Thompkins has been uploaded to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Foundation's Faces Never Forgotten project.
When Paul Farmer read Thompkins's name in the original Jefferson City News Tribune story in July about the project, he immediately went in search of a photo for his friend.
The Faces Never Forgotten project has created a web page for every name listed on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, installed in 1982 in Washington D.C. Their military branch and rank, the date and location of their death, and the birth date and home town are listed. But most importantly, there is a place for their face.
"It's different when you look into the face of a fallen brother and see the date and how they died," Farmer said. "If young people will access this site, they can know a little about the person and see their face - it will hit home more.
"Some day I'll be gone; it feels good to know this site is there for eternity."
Similarly, when Judith Lambayan, Osage Bend, learned of the Faces Never Forgotten project and saw that her brother, Victor Cassmeyer, didn't have a photo, she decided to follow through.
All three of the photos Lambayan submitted - one of him in uniform during his Ft. Leonard Wood training and two Cassmeyer had mailed back to his family from Vietnam - can be seen at www.vvmf.org.
Members of Cassmeyer's family and friends have visited the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington D.C. and they have visited the Moving Wall, when it has been nearby.
"But a photo makes a person more real," Lambayan said. "For our family, my brother will always be 21."
Lambayan has sent the link to Cassmeyer's page to everyone she knows. For the children and grandchildren who have heard about him, this is a chance to know him in a more concrete way.
"I would hope everyone would get a photo for their lost son or brother," she said. "We want to remember them and want others to remember their sacrifice.
"They were so young."
Thompkins was born in 1945, graduated from Jefferson City High School in 1963 - the last class to do so from the now Miller Performing Arts Center, graduated from Lincoln University with four years in ROTC and died in a helicopter crash 1969 in Pleiku, Vietnam.
Farmer attended high school and college with Thompkins.
"He was the kind of guy who was a good student, when he made a commitment to something, he would follow through with it," Farmer remembered.
At the time, Lincoln required two years of ROTC for all students. Farmer dropped after that, but eventually was drafted into the infantry anyway.
For those who completed the four-year ROTC program like Thompkins, they knew they would end up in Vietnam, Farmer said.
Although Farmer never saw Thompkins again, they arrived in southeast Asia within a week of each other.
During Farmer's tour with the 1st Battalion, 27th Infantry "Wolfhounds," he was stationed at a base near the Michelin Plantation. There he learned of two other Mid-Missourians, whose units had come into this firebase.
Michael Forck died at Kien Hoa, Vietnam, in March 1969 before Farmer had the chance to meet him. Forck, another whose photo had been posted to the Face Never Forgotten project, was a U.S. Army private from Jefferson City.
After reading about the project, "I wasn't going to stop until I found pictures of these guys," Farmer said.
He was pleased to discover soon after that story ran in July, that someone had posted a photo of Thompkins.
"I was going to add his senior picture and that's the exact same one," he said. " I was so pleased that somebody did it."
Faces Never Forgotten
The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Foundation has created the Faces Never Forgotten project, where each name on the Washington D.C. Vietnam Veterans Memorial, also has a web page with personal information and a space for a photo. 11 soldiers, Marines and sailors from Mid-Missouri, who died while serving in the Vietnam War, await photos at www.vvmf.org.
Anyone with a photo of these servicemen may upload it to the site. Those without photos include Charles George, Elwood Hendrix, Orville Sheets, Frank Johnson, Bill Poff, James Lang, James Wood, Marvin Parker, George Pruitt and Willard Storie.