Veterans display photos of war-torn land

Wednesday, March 3, 2004

By Nick Wright

During and since the Vietnam war, many photographs -- an image of a Vietnamese girl running down the road after having been burned by napalm, a photograph of a North Vietnamese prisoner being summarily executed -- have helped to show Americans the horrors and suffering of a people at war. They're familiar images to most people. Although such sights were a part of life for many Vietnamese and American soldiers alike, the photograph of the passenger terminal at the "Dak To airport subsidized by the Teeny Weeny Airline, Inc.," might bring on a few blank looks from folks who've never been to Vietnam. That whimsical photograph-- along with many, not-so whimsical others -- is now on display in a window just south of the West Side Barber Shop on Nevada's Square, and behind each is a tale, or at least a portion of a tale and a memory.

"Everybody's got a story," according to Eddie Files, vice president of the Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter No. 918, and now people can get a glimpse of these stories. Chapter members put together a collection of personal photographs from the Vietnam War and displayed them at Wal-Mart on Veteran's Day. When it came time to take the display down, chapter member Andy Anderson volunteered to put the collection in its current location.

"It lets people in the community know what some of the people in the community have done," said chapter president Vic Hinds. "I think people are realizing that the Vietnam veteran wasn't a horrible person, they were just a patriot," he said.

"Back then we had more protesting, there was a lot of bad press ... when the war was winding down. The people just didn't understand back then what was going on really," adds Files.

But he says that since the Sept. 1, 2001 terrorist attacks and the two Iraqi wars, people are more patriotic. And he believes that photography has helped to foster that understanding.

While there hasn't been much response to the photos, Anderson says that many people have stopped to look at them.

There are no graphically gory photos in the collection, although many members have very graphic images and there are plans in the works to do a display with them.

Photographs are not the only source of expression that local Vietnam Veteran's are making use of. Chapter member Ivan Pierce, who took many of the photographs on display, is currently in the process of publishing a book on his experience with the 4th Infantry Division during the Tet Offensive in 1968. Helen White has also published a book, titled "Lipstick and a Smile," now available at Cavener's book store. White also has paintings on display at the Vietnam Veteran's Museum in Chicago, the Vietnam Women's Memorial in Washington, D.C., and elsewhere around the country.

Vietnam Veterans of America meetings are open to the public and are held in the Elks Lodge basement the second Thursday of every month at 7 p.m.

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