Last night at the University of Nevada-Reno, we screened BRAVO! in the Wells Fargo Auditorium to a crowd of over one-hundred with a wide variety of viewing ages from Korean War veterans down through current combat-theater veterans and college students at UNR. The response to the film was intense. After the screening, we had a panel discussion that included, among other things, filmmaking, the Vietnam War, Fallujah, Iraq, film distribution, Afghanistan, MIAs in Southeast Asia, the change in communication methods over the last forty-five years, and the Vietnam Veterans of America’s pledge that “Never Again Will One Generation of Veterans Abandon Another.” Thanks to Marine brother Terry Hubert whose exuberance and dedication to veterans fueled this event. Many thanks are in order also to the Nevada State Council of the Vietnam Veterans of America, Reno Chapter 989 of the Vietnam Veterans of America, Dr. Marta Elliot and the University Veterans Coalition, Susan Kinder of UNR, the campus veterans fraternity, NuPhi, Troy Stormoen of the Reno Vet Center and all the folks who attended the screening.
Betty and I feel very fortunate that we were able to both make new friends and visit with old friends, too, as part of the Reno screening of BRAVO!
One of the men in the film, Steve Wiese and his wife Deborah, gave us a great surprise by coming up from Lincoln, California, and it was good to visit with them. Longtime super BRAVO! supporter Dianne Jackson drove up from the Sacramento area to see the film again. Lieutenant Colonel Ken Pipes, company commander of Bravo Company and also part of the film, was represented by three of his former colleagues and Marines. BRAVO! supporters Lela and Johnny Herman from my (Ken’s) hometown of Casa Grande, Arizona invited some of their friends, Matt and Rhonda Matthews to come up from Carson City to see the film. Matt and Johnny were in the United States Army and served in Vietnam together. Also on board at the screening, all the way from Chico, California was Stephen “Tank” Kostenius and his wife Mandy, of Vietnam Veteran of America Chapter 582.
Matt Mathews and I had a conversation about the power of memory and our specific memories of war and how they affect us after forty-five years. We decided that even though a lot of those memories still haunt us with their horrors, we don’t think that recalling those violent moments is all bad. Memory can serve to remind us of what is bad, but also what is good about the human condition, even in the worst of circumstances.
Next stop for BRAVO!: Fresno, California for a screening at the Fresno VA on March 20, 2013. Doors open at 4:00 PM, screening at 4:30.
The following afternoon, March 21, 2013, BRAVO! will be screened twice at the Clovis, California Veterans Memorial Building at 2:00 PM (doors open at 1:30) and at 6:00 PM (doors open at 5:30).
Many thanks are in order to Khe Sanh veteran Dave Harper for all his hard work on putting these screenings together along with Ken Hendrix and the Joint Service Honors Command, Kaweah Covenant Group, the Fresno area detachment of the Marine Corps League, American Legion Post 509, VFW Post 3225, and American Sheet Metal Air Conditioning and Heating among a host of other folks.
On April 19, 2013, BRAVO! will be screened in Moscow, Idaho, at the Kenworthy Performing Arts Center. This screening is sponsored by the University of Idaho’s Operation Education http://www.uidaho.edu/operationeducation . Screening will commence at 6:30 PM followed by a panel discussion about veterans and wars past, present and future.
More updates to come!