UTSA, partners complete Vietnam War memorial research project
(September 28, 2016) -- Community volunteers working with support from UTSA's Institute of Texan Cultures have completed a years-long community research project to honor the brave San Antonio service members who lost their lives in the Vietnam War.
Since 2010, the “Faces with Names” memorial photo project has sought to collect photographs of the 361 San Antonio natives inscribed upon the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington D.C. The national memorial honors more than 58,000 fallen Vietman War soldiers from across the nation.
This month, a team composed of UTSA leaders and volunteers matched a face to the final San Antonio name, completing the project. The volunteers came from all across San Antonio and were led by a team of retired military-affiliated individuals such as Charlie Calderon, retired U.S. Navy; Alfred Valenzuela, retired major general with the U.S. Army; J.R. Garza, veteran and past commander of Disabled American Veterans; and Mark Marquez, veteran and Fox Tech alum.
U.S. Army Sergeant Elvin Price, C TRP, 1st Squadron, 4th Cavalry, 1st Infantry Division, was the final face matched to a name thanks to their years-long effort. He was born in San Antonio on March 19, 1941 and lost his life in combat on July 9, 1966. His name is found on the wall of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial at Panel 9E, Line 12, among other casualties that occurred between July 6, 1966 and August 13, 1966.
“When we proposed this project between the UTSA Institute of Texan Cultures and Fox Tech alumni six years ago, our goal was to ensure that the names and faces of these brave soldiers lived on,” said UTSA President Ricardo Romo. “Now, with this project completed, they will always be part of a national memorial and education center, commemorating the 58,000 Americans who lost their lives during the Vietnam War.”
The UTSA and community volunteers worked with many local and national organizations to collect all 361 photos. The project took hundreds of hours of dedicated research to complete. Volunteers worked to going through donated yearbooks and digitized photographs, finding city and state documentation, and seeking out and interviewing relatives of the fallen service members.
The photo collection will be donated to and housed at the forthcoming Education Center at The Wall, which will be built at a site adjacent to the Vietnam Memorial on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund is funding the Wall.
-------------------------------
Learn more about the Faces with Names project and its origins.
Learn more about the Education Center at The Wall.
The “Faces with Names” project’s photo collection is currently housed at the UTSA Institute of Texan Cultures. It is located on the UTSA Hemisfair campus at 601 E. Cesar Chavez Blvd, a short distance from he Alamo and River Walk. Hours are 9 a.m.-5 p.m., Monday-Saturday, and noon-5 p.m. on Sundays. For more information or library hours, visit TexanCultures.com.
Connect online at Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram.
Events
Join UTSA Libraries and Museums to learn more about the publishing discounts available for UTSA researchers. Current agreements include Elsevier, Cambridge University Press, Springer Open, and more. Please bring your questions and feedback for the library as we continue to pursue partnerships with publishers to reduce costs for our researchers.
Virtual EventYou have probably heard of the term “fair use,” but how comfortable do you feel with navigating U.S. copyright law? For instance, did you know you are not required to register your copyrighted work with the U.S. Copyright Office? Join us for a hands-on workshop about the basics of copyright, both in education and as a researcher. We’ll dispel some common copyright myths and differences between copyright law and other intellectual property law and teach you how to apply a Fair Use checklist to your scholarly work.
Virtual EventDon’t mind the writing but hate formatting citations and bibliographies? Working on your thesis or dissertation, or even a long paper this semester? Citation managers such as Zotero® can help you store and organize the citations you find during your research. Take part in this session about using Zotero®.
Virtual EventIn this hands-on workshop, participants will learn to setup an EndNote library, save references and PDFs, and automatically create and edit a bibliography. Attendees are encouraged, but not required, to have EndNote already installed on a personal computer.
Virtual EventFeaturing UTSA alumni John Seesholtz and Melissa Lubecke Serabia. The program will be focused on Latin American Art Song. Free and open to the public.
UTSA Recital HallPressbooks is an open educational resource authoring platform for simple book publishing. Upon completion of the Pressbooks Basic workshop attendees will be able to: create a new book, clone an existing book, remix chapters from a variety of different Creative Commons licensed books, add media and other content to a book, export a book in a wide range of formats.
Virtual EventJoin Community-Engaged Digital Scholarship Hub (CEDISH) and the Digital Humanities Student Association (DHSO) at UTSA for an enlightening workshop on "Responsible Datasets in Context," sponsored by the Mozilla Foundation. Participants will gain insights into creating contextually rich datasets, developing data essays, and crafting effective visualizations.
Assembly Room, 4th Floor (4.04.22), John Peace Library