Arts of War on the Web

PublishingWorks, a New Hampshire book publisher, is looking for submissions from veterans for a book tentatively titled Moments of Honor, which will be published next Veterans Day.

The proposed book will contain 20-30 personal reminiscences, letters, and e-mails from veterans depicting experiences during conflicts from World War II to today. The submissions may be as long as 20 manuscript pages, or as short as a paragraph. The criteria are:

Victory/Loss
Fear/Courage
Honor/Regret
Love/Longing

E-mail your submission, or mail it, and include contact information (phone, address, e-mail), as well as a SASE. Do not send photos or any original material.

Send submissions to 151 Epping Road Exeter, NH 03833. Or email jeremy@publishingworks.com with “Veteran” in the subject line. Or call 603-778-9883 and ask for Jeremy or Carol. The deadline for submissions is March 1, 2010. And tell them you read about it here: at Vietnam Veterans of America’s Arts of War on the web page.

The Springs Art Gallery, a veteran-friendly space in El Dorado Spring, Missouri, is running an exhibit that commemorates military service and highlights the issue of PTSD. It’s called “I am Vietnam,” and is made up of work created through art therapy by Jon York, a former Marine who did a Vietnam War tour in 1969-70. The exhibit consists of York’s paintings, photographs and poetry that have helped him deal with his PTSD.

“Painting has helped me gain control of my life again and helps me release those demons that controlled my life for so many years,” York said. “As veterans, we face battles every waking hour of the day. Creative therapy allows us to drag these thoughts out of our head, put them down as words, paintings and sculptures. Art can address potential solutions, reconciliation, and the power of the human spirit to overcome oppression and loss. This exhibition is the story of my Vietnam experience in creativity. By these paintings I hope to address the issues veterans face, coming back from war, the increased rates of PTSD in returning soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan, and the increased rates of suicides.”

The exhibit will opened on November 14 and runs through January 16. For info, call 417-296-3659.

The new big Hollywood film, The Men Who Stare at Goats, has a minor Vietnam War theme.  The movie spin out a based-on-a-true (if extremely odd) story of military intelligence gone two steps over the line. Said theme plays out in the person of Vietnam veteran Bill Django, played by the always-good Jeff Bridges, who in the two decades after his service in the war, has morphed into a New Age hippie type.

He comes up with a goofy intelligence manual (partially under the influence of hallucinogens) that the Army decides to adopt.  It’s based on his hush-hush Nam assignment as the leader of an experimental unit called The New Earth Army.

“We must be the first superpower to have super powers,” Django, notes, and then the excellent ensemble, led by George Clooney (above, staring at a goat) Ewan McGregor, Bridges and Kevin Spacey, have fun with the Army’s version of Jedi “warrior monks.”

The reviews were generally positive. The New York Times‘ Manohla Dargis, for example, called the movie “likable, lightweight, absurdist comedy.”

U.S. Army Major Greg Schrein, who is stationed at Fort Leavenworth and is working on his MA in Military History at the Command and General Staff College, has chosen the early advisory efforts in Vietnam (1955-62) as the focus of his thesis.  “I am specifically examining if experiences of advisers in Korea during the Korean War were transferred to the effort in Vietnam,” he told us.

For his research, Major Schrein would like to interview MAAG-V veterans “who may be interested in sharing some insight into the early efforts.” That especially includes people who served in both Korea (from 1949-43) and in Vietnam.

If you fit the bill and would like to help, send an email to: gregory.schrein@us.army.mil

And tell him you found about it here on VVA’s Arts of War on the web page.

You heard it here first: In mid-January Worthington Games will release a “card-driven area movement game” called Hearts and Minds. It will allow, as Worthington says, “players to recreate the Vietnam War between 1965-1975 in the full campaign game or yearly scenarios starting and ending in any year.” Designed by John Poniske and developed by Stan Hilinski, the game is made to be playable in an hour for scenarios and three-to-six hours for a “campaign” game.

Worthington will have what it is calling a dedication wall in the game to honor veterans. If you’d like your name on the wall, or would like to add another veteran’s, email WG@WORTHINGTONGAMES.COM

For more info on the game itself, go to the Worthington web site.