The “Faces Never Forgotten” project was nearly complete in Wisconsin. Out of 1,161 missing photos of Wisconsin’s Vietnam dead, just one fallen soldier remained faceless: Willie Bedford. His five surviving siblings had no photo. His only child had been just three months old when her father, a 19-year-old Marine, drowned in Vietnam. Now, through careful reporting, community connections and a reach-back into the Bedford family’s memory, UWM student journalist Rachel Maidl shares a lost photo of this young hero with his grateful family.
