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Betty Rodgers Remembers David Douglas Duncan
When we learned about the passing of renowned war photojournalist David Douglas Duncan on June 7, 2018, I was flooded with a great sense of loss as I remembered our unique connection with him. Back in...
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Abandoned
At my folks’ kitchen counter, it was harsh black coffee à la my father’s tastes, accompanied by unfiltered Camels. I’d consumed two pots of the old man’s bitter javvy because I’d been up all night...
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Wayne Moore
Sometimes the work we do with the story of Bravo Company, 1/26, resonates in unexpected places. Recently, I received the text below from someone who lost a friend, a Marine named Wayne Moore, who...
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But Still . . .
First it was the dreams No, wait, that’s not what was first; what barged in first was the envelopment, the saturation, the occupation of my bones and blood, my mind and my soul by the searing...
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I’d Rather Take a Beating
When my father died, one of his friends stood outside the chapel before the funeral service and told me, “I’d rather take a beating than go in there.” I’ve often thought about that moment and I’ve even...
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Michael E. O’Hara Muses On Navy Corpsmen and Marines
FLEET MARINE FORCE (FMF) Navy Corpsman In today’s guest blog, a reprint of an entry from January 2016, BRAVO! Marine Michael E. O’Hara muses on Navy Corpsmen and Marines The latter part of 2015 was not...
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Why I Fought the War
Recently Betty and I watched a documentary film titled FIVE CAME BACK about filmmakers who served in the American military during World War II. Those men, Frank Capra, John Ford, John Huston, George...
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Read This Book
Bill Jones is a wry and intelligent man who knows how to spin a tale of war. I recently finished reading a third and final iteration of Bill’s book titled THE BODY BURNING DETAIL and I highly recommend...
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Christmas in Nam
The Christmas season is upon us and as I do every year, I think about many of the Christmases I’ve lived through including my tour with the 26th Marines in Vietnam. In the house where I grew up, we...
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2018 In Review
2018 is here and gone and 2019 begins tomorrow. For BRAVO!, in many ways, this was a banner year. We continued to meet new people, screen the film, and in early April we managed to get the film up on...
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If
I woke this morning and thought about the date, and like most mornings as I lie in bed, I contemplated what I’d done while in Vietnam on that same date. On January 16th, 1968, the morning was probably...
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Ruminations
Fifty-one years ago today at Khe Sanh, Marines from 1st and 3rd Platoons of Bravo/1/26 went out on patrol from the combat base and walked into an ambush that killed 27 Marines and Corpsmen and wrecked...
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On Memory, The Wall That Heals and Screenings of BRAVO!
Betty and I journeyed to my old home town the week of March 4 to screen BRAVO! at the historic Paramount Theatre. The event was sponsored by Casa Grande, Arizona’s Marine Corps League Detachment 901...
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Intuition–The Payback Patrol
Fifty-one years ago the morning roared at us much too soon, the briefings and the saddling up and the waiting to barge outside the wire and into the NVA trenchline. Fog crouched over the base and...
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News From La Grande, Oregon
Ten days ago, we were privileged to show BRAVO! in La Grande, Oregon, to an enthusiastic crowd of 150 folks in a jam-packed auditorium at Eastern Oregon University. The event was scheduled as a way to...
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On Okinawa
About this time fifty-one years ago, I arrived in Okinawa on my way home from the war and the Siege of Khe Sanh. On the flight between Da Nang and Oki’s Kadena Air Force Base, I gazed around at the...
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Rats
The scrabbling of the rats’ feet woke me. I listened to the rain. I wondered if daylight might be near or if the time ran closer to midnight. For a moment, I didn’t know where I was but then figured...
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Greetings From BRAVO!
Greetings from BRAVO!. We have some really great news to share. Last year we sold out of DVDs and it took a while to choose the best source for manufacturing a new lot. But we got it done, and are...
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Remember the Mayaguez
Forty-four years ago this week the SS Mayaguez, a US merchant ship, was captured by the Khmer Rouge on the coast of Cambodia (Kampuchea.) President Gerald Ford decided that an emphatic response was...
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HAMBURGER HILL (MEMORIAL DAY 2019)
Guest blogger Cobb Hammond’s article on the savage battle fought in May, 1969, originally published in the MEMPHIS COMMERCIAL APPEAL on May 24, 2019. As Americans this weekend memorialize the...
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