Vietnam documentary too painful for veterans

and was hospitalized in Saigon.

When he heard PBS was Watching Ken Burns and presenting “The Vietnam Lynn Novick’s epic documentary War,” “I started having undertaking, “The nightmares right off… I Vietnam War,” one is reminded flailed in bed, I woke up of the story of the soaked.” blind men encountering an Although early screenings elephant. for veterans elicited

This old Indian parable general praise, Mr. Keller is has six men touching the elephant not alone in his concerns in different places. about re-visiting a traumatic One, finding the tail, says an time in his life. Having elephant is like a rope. watched “two or three” episodes, Another, with the ear, says Ken Swaney of Uniontown the elephant is like a fan. In said it wasn’t cathartic: the end, they agree all of the “I don’t know what could viewpoints are possibly make you feel better. That valid. war lasted a long time, people

And so it is with “The Vietnam got tired of seeing this.” War,” a 10-episode, 18He said he considered hour interpretation told himself fortunate for having from various sides and registered with the Navy after through sociological as well his draft number came as historical lenses. One part up. A boilerman on a guided might be a somewhat dry political missile ship, Mr. Swaney lesson, the next a painful, said of his Army compatriots: graphic account of incidents “They saw much more, such as the My Lai You know, walk over the massacre. bodies. We couldn’t see it, we

Although critically acclaimed, were three miles out in the “The Vietnam Tonkin Gulf. War” has, for some veterans, “We didn’t see where been too difficult to watch. those missiles were going or Whether or not these men what they were doing. But and women have been diagnosed they [Army] did, and that with Post Traumatic had to be horrible.” Stress Disorder, or have “It’s certainly been a topic even put a name to their anxiety, of conversation in my clinical it’s been viewed by sessions,” said psychologist some as a trigger. Kathleen DeNardi, who

“I think our veterans’ heads the Pittsburgh Veterans opinions of the series are, Health Administration like of the war, all over the Combat Stress Recovery map,” said Todd DePastino, Clinic. For privacy reasons, executive director of Pittsburgh’s Ms. DeNardi could not speak Veterans Breakfast to specifics. “One of the Club. “It’s a Rorschach test things we work really hard of how you view the country.” to do in our clinic is to educate our patients about mental

The series recently concluded health in general, but its first broadcast PTSD in particular, especially run, but now repeats locally those who might be experiencing on WQED Tuesdays through it. the end of November at 9 “I known there is a lot of p.m. It also can be viewed misinformation [about with narration in English, PTSD] among the general Spanish and Vietnamese at population.” PBS.org. Forty-six percent of the

“My wife wanted me to more than 70,000 patients in watch with her, and I said the VA Pittsburgh Healthcare ‘no,’ ” said Donny Keller, a System are Vietnam Purple Heart veteran from War-era veterans who are Waynesburg, Greene treated for myriad issues, County. “And then she said both mental and physical. In ‘What if I tape it?’ Again, I the fiscal years 2016 and 2017, said ‘no.’ ” there were 11,130 visits/appointments

Mr. Keller was a radio in the Combat telephone operator, or RTO, Stress Recovery Clinic. It from 1968-69 in the Mekong also provides video appointments Delta. He was wounded through its Telehealth twice, including an incident program. in which seven men were There are four clusters of killed as they walked into a symptoms used to diagnose booby trap. He took shrapnel PTSD: avoidance; occurring in the face and right arm, or re-experiencing thoughts Pittsburgh Post-Gazette about traumatic images or experiences; negative alteration in cognition and mood, or, how the person views or sees the world after experiencing trauma; and finally, hyper-arousal, what are considered classic anxiety symptoms.

“What I cannot reiterate enough is that PTSD is a disorder that people can recover from,” Ms. DeNardi said.

The vast VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System also provides walk-in assessments from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. weekdays in Oakland and provides one-on-one videoconferencing therapy sessions for those who live in areas not convenient to its other physical locations.

On a recent weekend, the Vietnam Traveling Memorial Wall program arrived for four days at the Greene County Fairgrounds in Waynesburg. The scaleddown version of the original in Washington, D.C. drew hundreds of vets for the formal programs and dozens during the more quiet hours.

Vietnam veteran Don Martin of Dunns Station, Washington County, spoke at the opening ceremony. He said he has not watched “The Vietnam War” or other accounts because he prefers to remember the war through his experiences as a reconnaissance expert.

“I’m afraid to watch these documentaries because if some kid asks me a question, I’m going to give him somebody else’s answer other than my own honest opinion. I don’t know if that makes any sense,” he said, raising his hands with a shrug.

“‘Platoon’ was based on a battle that I was in, and it had nothing to do with anything. I didn’t know this Oliver Stone guy but he keyed on things I did not see. I didn’t see people shooting people in the back. It’s [just entertainment], unless you’re getting blamed for it.”

Many veterans pointed out that, unlike the heroes of previous wars, Vietnam-era soldiers were not celebrated on their return to the States. Burying memories of combat, and the hesitation to talk about it later, were a pattern for many.

“We were called ‘babykillers,’ ‘rapists,’ ” Mr. Keller said. “I never killed a baby, I never raped anybody but that’s what we were called.”

He said conversations with other vets have been therapeutic, and that educating others through programs such as the Vietnam Traveling Wall has made it easier to talk about what was previously suppressed: “You’ve got to remember one thing: we didn’t know we had PTSD. I didn’t know until 10 years ago, didn’t know what it was. So how can you fight something you didn’t know you had?”

“I think, another problem was, when we came back, everybody said ‘that’s the only war America lost.’ We don’t feel like we lost. Had we been allowed to win, we would have,” Mr. Martin said.

“You got that right,” added Mr. Keller who, like Mr. Martin, was awarded the Purple Heart.

It has taken decades, but it seems many veterans are finally ready to open up. Mr. Martin said that staying in the Army, in the Reserve stateside and then as a commander of the National Guard in Waynesburg, gave him a purpose.

“I wanted to help them [young soldiers] be prepared so they would not have to go through what we did.”

In Uniontown, Mr. Swaney said, about 60 to 80 veterans meet each Thursday night through the local AMVETS program there.

The Veterans Breakfast Club is a 501(c)3 nonprofit for vets of all eras. It has an ongoing “Veterans Voices” oral history project, and plans a spring tour to Vietnam next year. Mr. DePastino said that when the organization held its annual gala in late September, “The Vietnam War” documentary series was a topic of discussion.

“One veteran in particular put into words so wonderfully how he felt, Jim Puhala, a helicopter pilot.

“He said ‘I watched that and just felt so angry.’ He’s a very mild-mannered guy and his wife looked at him, astonished. She said ‘I didn’t know that; why do you watch [‘The Vietnam War’] every night?’

“Jim said ‘I’m angry at everything: I’m angry at Nixon, Johnson, Kennedy. I’m mad at the protesters, I’m mad at the men in the My Lai massacre, I’m angry at the enemy — everything about it.’

“I think he was grieving. The cost of the war was terrible, and these are people who know this war firsthand.”