WHAT VETERANS ARE SAYING
JOE GALLOWAY is co-author (with Lt. Col. Hal Moore) of “We Were Soldiers Once … and Young,” an account of the battle of Ia
Drang, one of the most savage and significant battles of the
Vietnam
War. Galloway was a war correspondent, the only journalist on the ground throughout the fighting. He was consulted on the documentary and has seen some previews.
“I worked the last four years as a permanent consultant to the Ken Burns/Lynn Novick ‘Vietnam War’ documentary series. I was interviewed for over 11 hours personally. Saw the roughs at Ken’s New Hampshire studio over a year ago, and I was blown away. Have seen four or five of the previews in various venues, each different from the last. They are magnificent and a fair and honest telling of the history of that war of our younger days. If the 18 hours of film and interviews manage to piss off both the left and the right, then I will assume they got it exactly right.”
› ROBERT COTHRAN is a member of Vietnam Veterans of America, Chapter 942, in Soddy-Daisy. He was drafted into the Army, serving two years, one in Vietnam. He was an MP at Fort Bragg in North Carolina and an infantrymen when he was shipped overseas. He has not followed news of the documentary and has no plans to tune in.
“I hope it tells the real story. … I don’t go to movies about Vietnam or watch any of that stuff. It’s not because it might not be good … . It brings back too much stuff. I like to remember the good times — when I got to come home.”
› CHESTER HEATHINGTON JR., who was drafted into the military, went to Vietnam while serving in the Navy from 1968 to 1970. He said there’s no way he’d watch a documentary about the Vietnam War.
“Watch it for what? Who wants to rehash something that’s really not important to anybody? It wasn’t important to me then. I didn’t know why we were fighting anyway. We damn sure weren’t fighting to preserve democracy in the country when we didn’t have democracy here. I mean we were catching hell here. How in the hell am I going to join some place and say I’m going to join up and fight for democracy and freedom. That doesn’t work.”
› BILL NORTON, president of Vietnam Veterans of America, Chapter 203, was an explosives expert with the U.S. Marine Corps outside of Da Nang in 1968. He says he has been following the making of the documentary — some chapter members have shared their experiences with the filmmakers — and he will be watching. He and his three brothers all served. The youngest was killed in Vietnam and another came home 100 percent disabled. “I guess I ducked a lot more than they did.”
“If you’ve seen any of [Ken Burns’] documentaries, for the most part they’re really first class. I suspect this one will be even better than the ones he’s done in the past because there’s so many people still around that have tales to tell.”
› BUD ALLEY of Signal Mountain is the author of “The Ghosts of the Green Grass,” his account of the 2nd Battalion 7th Cavalry’s journey into the Ia Drang Valley in 1965. He was commissioned into the Army as a second lieutenant in 1964 and served a one-year tour of duty as communication officer for the unit during the bloodiest one-day battle of the war on Nov. 17, 1965.
“[Ken Burns] does excellent work and always has done excellent work. I’m very much anticipating a real outstanding job, as usual, from him. … I’ve seen one preview and was very impressed with it.”
› WILLIAM COTTON earned two Purple Hearts while serving two years in the Vietnam War. He was drafted into the Marines at age 20 in 1966 and became a machine gun sergeant. Cotton said he follows Vietnam history but hadn’t heard of the documentary and isn’t sure if he will watch it.
“My job was to seek out, destroy and kill. It’s something most veterans will never forget because it was dealing with women and children, and it’s not easy shooting women and children. First off, we didn’t know what we were fighting for. I was in college and got drafted. I was a history and political science major [at Tennessee State University], and we felt like it was our duty. Then Dr. [Martin Luther] King got killed. That was hard to swallow. Why are we in Vietnam fighting for democracy when we don’t have democracy at home?”
› HENRY SLAYTON was drafted into the Army in 1969 at age 21. He said he looks forward to watching the show and is glad that someone wants to tell the Vietnam War veteran’s story.
“We plan to watch it. It’s a whole lot of stuff, like folks now raising sand about statues and really they don’t know anything about the Civil War and they definitely don’t know about the Vietnam War. Nobody wanted to hear our problems about that war. They didn’t want to hear it, so we had to suck it up and keep it in us. We talked among ourselves, with other veterans. But our families, our wives and girlfriends, none of them wanted to hear that. So that’s what [Burns is] basically doing. Bringing it back so another generation will know what happened.”