A Soldier's Story

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So here is a kind of short documentary-type vlog. It's my father's best friend talking about his experience as a soldier in the Vietnam War. The original interview was over an hour long and it was pretty difficult trying to condense most of the conversation down to five or so minutes. Also, it was not very easy for him to sit down for such a long time and tell me a story he would soon rather forget. But he said that if it helps anyone, then it would be worth it.

I also want to thank Drew for joining in on the conversation under the Cinco de Mayo vlog entry. His answers to some of the questions I had were eye-opening. (If you haven't read it, please take a moment and do see if you have any questions of your own.)

One of the things I hope that happens with vlogging is that people can begin having these type of conversations. It's one thing to answer someone's text question - but to see them ask it, and to be able to answer in video, just seems to make the entire experience more human and communal. Imagine when we all start communicating this way. When we don't have to have our news filtered. When we can just go directly to the source and ask "Hey, what's really going on? Imagine...

**ANOTHER SOLDIER'S STORY



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There are so many more stories to share... This is how we begin to understand and to heal.

Deirdré Straughan, another vlogger, has been documenting her father's life. Her father was also in Vietnam the same year my father's friend was there. Please take a moment and visit her site to hear his story... Thanks to Dierdré and her father for sharing.

Cinco de Mayo: Army Edition

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So, this includes additional footage from the Cinco de Mayo coverage for Rocketboom

While I was at the festival I stumbled across an Army recruiting table, which was kind of smack-dab in the middle of this celebration. Looking back I wish I would have asked more questions. There were a couple of sides battling it out: 1. The girl who saw people being emotionally manipulated into joining the army. 2. The girl who came from an army family and saw the soldiers as familiar and just doing their job. 3. The girl who knew this was the system and wondered if there really was anything people could do to change it. 4. The girl who saw too many sides to the equation.

In any case, it affected me for a myriad of reasons. One reason brought me back to an interview I had with my father's best friend, who was a Sniper in Vietnam. He had agreed to share his story and shortly I'll present it to you. I think it's important to keep these kind of conversations going in order to better understand one another.

I'll be posting them soon...