Remembering Vietnam
“The flower will always live in the memory of a tired, wet Marine, and has thus achieved a sort of immortality. But even if we had never gone on the hill, it would still be a distinguished, soft, red, thornless flower growing among the cutting, scratching plants, and that in itself is its own reward.” Twenty-four year old Marion Lee “Sandy” Kempner writes to his great-aunt, Mrs. Louis Adoue about a solitary flower he finds in a mass of razor-edged vegetation. At the time, Kempner was a platoon leader with Company M, 3rd Battalion, 7th Regiment, 1st Marine Division operating in I Corps in Vietnam. Less than three weeks later, he was killed in a mine explosion. He was 24.
As anniversaries go, this is a difficult one. Saigon fell on April 30, 1975. With its demise, the Vietnam War ended, but perhaps it just moved to another front. Unexploded land mines and long-term affects of Agent Orange do not fully encompass its lethal legacy.
As subject, the war is vast, complex and profoundly controversial. As such, if anything could encompass any significant record of it outside the vaults of various governments, surely it’s the worldwide web. Unlike real-time galleries, museums or even archives, the net offers a dizzying number of viewpoints as well as artwork, and records in a range of media. Unlike any real-time space, it also makes it accessible to millions of people. It also empowers veterans to tell their stories in their own ways, without having to mould them to any political agendas or submit to the will of curators, museum mandates or exhibit sponsors. This is very powerful stuff.
Dedicated to Mike Company, 3rd Battalion 7th Marines, 1st Marine Division, Vietnam Death Trip: A Photographic Journal of a Vietnam Veteran includes a list of the fallen (“The Book of the Dead”). These photographs stray from the typical photojournalistic imagery we’re perhaps more familiar with. Often evincing the typical “amateur mistakes” - unintentional soft-focusing or photographing people backlit, leaving their faces masked in darkness – the photographs humanize the soldiers and their experiences. The images document personal relationships between the soldiers as well as conditions and terrain. Unlike contemporary reportage, here there is, thankfully, some evidence of fleeting moments of respite.
Designed by a former Vietnam veteran, Dennis (Doc) Boettcher, in just over 3 years, the elegantly austere award-winning site had over 15 million hits. The impressive selective links can take you to everything from the Library of Congress POW database, the Vietnam Vets’ Oral History and Folklore Project, and archival research into international military records (including photographs and maps).
“Copilot whiskey this is whiskey mike whiskey mike, radio check, over….” Part of a 14-second radio clip, 19-year old Lance Corporal Mike Pomakis executes a radio check somewhere on Hill 52. There’s an echoing tinny silence before Pomakis is answered. It’s one of several recordings made on Hill 52 during the war. Pomakis, the site’s webmaster, sets up the downloadable RealAudio clips with photographs featuring the person/people in the sound clips. The result is an intense multi-media experience of life for the average marine, marines you can see and hear. Sections are devoted to the India Company, Mike Company and memorials. Like the other sites, this one features web rings specifically oriented to the Vietnam War and other links.
Vets With a Mission: Vietnam Vets Doing Humanitarian Projects in Vietnam takes a comparatively politicized position, highlighting its members work, including sponsoring orphans and street-children in Vietnam. The site is also home to a massive “footlocker” of photographs (over 200). Unlike the others, this one spans the gamut, showcasing amateur and photojournalistic imagery. As well as a special section of captured French photographer Catherine Leroy’s work (published in Life Magazine in 1968), the site includes AP Wire photos, and even a section called, “The Other Guys & Gals,” shots of Vietnamese soldiers during and after the war.
In addition to the photo archive sites, including a few entirely devoted to documenting visitors to the National Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, DC, sites devoted to poetry abound. A Vietnam Vet known only as “Dusty” has posted some of her poetry and photographs on her home page. One of approximately 7,500 American women serving in the war in roles as diverse as CIA intelligence officers, Red Cross nurses and photographers, Dusty’s poetry, often about the daily confrontation with death, is supplemented by sound recordings of her reading it. (Please note: in the years since this story was first published, it has emerged that Dusty was in fact not a nurse in Vietnam.)
After the siege of Khe Sanh in 1968, a soldier found a C-ration box with some words scrawled on it. “For those who fight for it, freedom has a flavor the protected will never know.” For those of us who live in relative protection, trying to grasp the enormity of this war and its aftermath, the Web provides a well of thoughts and images worthy of many hours of contemplation.
Published in The Ottawa Xpress
As anniversaries go, this is a difficult one. Saigon fell on April 30, 1975. With its demise, the Vietnam War ended, but perhaps it just moved to another front. Unexploded land mines and long-term affects of Agent Orange do not fully encompass its lethal legacy.
As subject, the war is vast, complex and profoundly controversial. As such, if anything could encompass any significant record of it outside the vaults of various governments, surely it’s the worldwide web. Unlike real-time galleries, museums or even archives, the net offers a dizzying number of viewpoints as well as artwork, and records in a range of media. Unlike any real-time space, it also makes it accessible to millions of people. It also empowers veterans to tell their stories in their own ways, without having to mould them to any political agendas or submit to the will of curators, museum mandates or exhibit sponsors. This is very powerful stuff.
Dedicated to Mike Company, 3rd Battalion 7th Marines, 1st Marine Division, Vietnam Death Trip: A Photographic Journal of a Vietnam Veteran includes a list of the fallen (“The Book of the Dead”). These photographs stray from the typical photojournalistic imagery we’re perhaps more familiar with. Often evincing the typical “amateur mistakes” - unintentional soft-focusing or photographing people backlit, leaving their faces masked in darkness – the photographs humanize the soldiers and their experiences. The images document personal relationships between the soldiers as well as conditions and terrain. Unlike contemporary reportage, here there is, thankfully, some evidence of fleeting moments of respite.
Designed by a former Vietnam veteran, Dennis (Doc) Boettcher, in just over 3 years, the elegantly austere award-winning site had over 15 million hits. The impressive selective links can take you to everything from the Library of Congress POW database, the Vietnam Vets’ Oral History and Folklore Project, and archival research into international military records (including photographs and maps).
“Copilot whiskey this is whiskey mike whiskey mike, radio check, over….” Part of a 14-second radio clip, 19-year old Lance Corporal Mike Pomakis executes a radio check somewhere on Hill 52. There’s an echoing tinny silence before Pomakis is answered. It’s one of several recordings made on Hill 52 during the war. Pomakis, the site’s webmaster, sets up the downloadable RealAudio clips with photographs featuring the person/people in the sound clips. The result is an intense multi-media experience of life for the average marine, marines you can see and hear. Sections are devoted to the India Company, Mike Company and memorials. Like the other sites, this one features web rings specifically oriented to the Vietnam War and other links.
Vets With a Mission: Vietnam Vets Doing Humanitarian Projects in Vietnam takes a comparatively politicized position, highlighting its members work, including sponsoring orphans and street-children in Vietnam. The site is also home to a massive “footlocker” of photographs (over 200). Unlike the others, this one spans the gamut, showcasing amateur and photojournalistic imagery. As well as a special section of captured French photographer Catherine Leroy’s work (published in Life Magazine in 1968), the site includes AP Wire photos, and even a section called, “The Other Guys & Gals,” shots of Vietnamese soldiers during and after the war.
In addition to the photo archive sites, including a few entirely devoted to documenting visitors to the National Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, DC, sites devoted to poetry abound. A Vietnam Vet known only as “Dusty” has posted some of her poetry and photographs on her home page. One of approximately 7,500 American women serving in the war in roles as diverse as CIA intelligence officers, Red Cross nurses and photographers, Dusty’s poetry, often about the daily confrontation with death, is supplemented by sound recordings of her reading it. (Please note: in the years since this story was first published, it has emerged that Dusty was in fact not a nurse in Vietnam.)
After the siege of Khe Sanh in 1968, a soldier found a C-ration box with some words scrawled on it. “For those who fight for it, freedom has a flavor the protected will never know.” For those of us who live in relative protection, trying to grasp the enormity of this war and its aftermath, the Web provides a well of thoughts and images worthy of many hours of contemplation.
Published in The Ottawa Xpress
