Collecting Minnesota veterans' stories was a quest of the soul

The photo of Gerald J. Johnson, a dedicated military man from Round Lake who was 39 when he died in Vietnam 46 years ago, popped up on the Wall of Faces website a few days ago.

For Herb Reckinger and other volunteers like Bob Ahles of St. Cloud and Diane Finneman of Forest Lake, it represents an emotional mission accomplished.

Johnson is the last of the 1,075 Minnesotans to have their photos and personal stories collected for a project that will soon be incorporated into a new Education Center at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. Reckinger, of Cottage Grove, was part of a small group of volunteers who crisscrossed the state over many months to track down the photos, faces and stories of those who are among the 58,000 names etched on the stark memorial.

The project aims to give those names more vibrant context, so future generations have a deeper understanding of the enormity of their sacrifice.

Reckinger shared his story last December, when volunteers were closing in on completion. A few weeks ago the unpictured Minnesotans were down to three: Johnson, Lawrence Harris of Willmar — an Army sergeant who has an orphanage in Vietnam named for him called Harris House — and Joseph Herron of St. Paul, a 21-year-old Marine killed in a firefight.

The search for families involved dogged detective work up blind alleys and relying on sometimes-errant records, scouring newspapers and high school yearbooks and enlisting the help of librarians and county veterans' service officers. Along with logging hours and miles of travel, the journey to track down parents, siblings and children of those who died — and to hear their profoundly personal stories — was also a quest of the soul. Reckinger is pleased with what the volunteers have accomplished.

"You know it," he said this week. "It's not really joy, but it's a relief. You feel like you contributed something."

To visit the project website, go to http://www.vvmf.org/.

jim.anderson@startribune.com