AETN urges public to take part in ‘The Vietnam War’ series

CONWAY — The Arkansas Educational Television Network is encouraging the public to share their first-person stories about the Vietnam War.

The public may share stories through social media outlets with the hashtag #VietnamStoriesPBS or the “Share Your Story” tool at http://www. aetn.org/thevietnamwar.

Anyone interested may share their stories with videos, photographs or a written account. Stories must include the name of the storyteller, who they are, such as a veteran or student, and the location.

Additionally, AETN suggests veterans consider submitting their stories to The Library of Congress Veterans History Project of the American Folklife Center, which collects, preserves and makes accessible the personal accounts of American war veterans so future generations may hear directly from veterans and better understand the realities of war. The project provides a field kit to collect the stories and complete submission guidelines at http://www.loc.gov/vets.

AETN said in a news release it is encouraging the collection of Arkansas veterans’ stories in conjunction with the local initiative “AETN Salutes Arkansas Vietnam Veterans” and the premiere of Ken Burns’ “The Vietnam War.”

“The Vietnam War,” a 10-part, 18hour documentary film series directed by Burns and Lynn Novick, will premiere on AETN at 7 p.m. Sept. 17. An immersive 360-degree narrative, the series tells the epic story of the Vietnam War as it has never before been told on film, a news release said. The first five episodes will air Sept. 1721, and the final five episodes will air Sept. 24-28, at 7 p.m. each night.

“The Vietnam War” features testimony from nearly 100 witnesses, including many Americans who fought in the war and others who opposed it, as well as Vietnamese combatants and civilians from both the winning and losing sides.

Ten years in the making, the series brings the war and the chaotic epoch it encompassed viscerally to life. It includes rarely seen, digitally remastered archival footage, photographs taken by some of the most celebrated photojournalists of the 20th century, historic television broadcasts, evocative home movies, and revelatory audio recordings from inside the Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon administrations, the release said.