Vietnam Vets’ Trip, Documentary by Barbara Campagnola Three Athens area residents are meeting in Hanoi next week to lay the groundwork for a first-ever U.S. collaborative production with Vietnam Television, and a memorial service commemorating the 30th anniversary of the Tet offensive. The memorial service started out as a dream for Vietnam veteran Dave Garrod of Athens, but it will soon be a reality thanks, in part, to the efforts of filmmaker Blis Hanousek, an educational telecommunications producer at Ohio University; and Amesville writer Lady Borton. Garrod, owner of the Athens State Farm Insurance agency, was a member of the 25th Infantry Division 3/4th Cavalry, who fought on the battlefield of Thon Sun Nhut in 1968. His dream began with the desire to return to Vietnam. Five years ago, Garrod started saving for a vacation. Except for the scarring of bombs on the hillsides and the poverty, Garrod says he remembers Vietnam as a beautiful land with magnificent evening skies. After reading “The Battle for Saigon” by Keith Nolan, a book that’s been his primary reference source for the project, Garrod located other veterans whose names appeared in the text. Contacting them, he invited them to accompany him on the pilgrimage. Tet, the most important holiday in Vietnam, is a season when families call for their ancestors to return home. Garrod says the families of the 500 Vietnamese who died on the battlefield of Than Sun Nhut believe the spirits of their deceased are still adrift. In an effort to help healing for those families, Garrod’s vision expanded to include a memorial service to commemorate the dead on both sides. Garrod says the trip has become a journey toward closure for him and five other veterans who will be returning with him in January. A few months ago, Garrod took his idea to Hanousek’s office and suggested she do a documentary on the pilgrimage. Hanousek was moved by Garrod’s story and wanted to share it with her generation, she says. Marvin Bowman, director of Educational Telecommunications at OU and executive producer of the project, suggested the two consult with Lady Borton, field director of the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) in Hanoi. At the time, Borton was organizing an exchange program between the United States and the Women’s Television Program of Vietnam. Hanousek says the project began to fit together perfectly. Borton, currently in Vietnam, will introduce Garrod and Hanousek to the Women’s Program Team when they arrive next week. This will begin the collaboration on what Hanousek says is a first-ever, joint television production between the United States and Vietnam. The Women’s Program Team will help set up the memorial service, shoot footage of the preliminaries and act as a liaison between Hanousek, Garrod and the families they hope to locate. If all goes well, they also will help with the final editing of the documentary when they come to the United States this spring. “I am looking forward to this with excitement and apprehension,” Garrod says. He acknowledges that he’s concerned about his own emotional reaction and the possible reactions of the five other veterans in his group. He said he fears that over the years much has been repressed, and notes that the casualties of the war are still being counted. One wheelchair-bound veteran Garrod contacted and befriended after reading Nolan’s book recently took his own life. In their meetings with Borton, Hanousek and Garrod discovered that another Athens resident was also effected by the events of Tet 1968. OU faculty member Dr. Marjorie Nelson, a conscientious objector working as a member of the AFSC in 1968, was vacationing in Hue at the time the city was overrun by Communist forces. She was captured and held prisoner in the mountains for two months - one of a handful of civilian women ever to be held hostage in Vietnam. Hanousek said she plans to weave the two stories together in the film. OU’s Telecommunications Center has contributed generously to the project with in-kind funding, and hopes to distribute the hour-long documentary nationally when it is completed. But Garrod says the project is still in dire need of contributions for production expenses. Questions about the project can be directed to Hanousek or Bowman at the Telecommunications Center at OU.
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