After-Action Report: "In The Shadow Of The Blade" Documentary
MSVHPA President Ken Culwell and I attended the afternoon viewing of "In The Shadow Of The Blade" on 5 Aug 04 during the VVA Leadership Meeting at the Nashville Sheraton Downtown.
Preceded by an excellent PowerPoint presentation tribute to veterans since WWI and a film about one of the Traveling Walls' visit to a Utah college campus, which were excellent setups for ITSOTB, we settled in to watch the 1 hour 43 minute documentary, distilled from hundreds of hours of videotape.
At the end of the film, Ken commented that anyone who could watch it with a dry eye was a stronger man than he.
Took the words right out of my mouth.
It is truly an amazing and powerful documentary, covering the cross-country flight of a fully restored UH-1H from FL to UT, stopping at LZ's large and small in various states. At the stops shown in the film, various veterans and/or their families, many of whom had special connections to Hueys, reconnected to those they hadn't seen for years, or met the families who'd lost a loved one in RVN and to whom they could bring some details of the death of that loved one.
In one particularly poignant episode, the Huey landed in Radcliff, KY (post town for Ft. Knox). Bert Chole, who was S-3 when I served with 1/9th, met the mother of a crewmember killed when Bert was at the controls of a UH-1. And, all these many years later, Bert took the controls again and took that mother on a flight of connection and remembrance, along with another of her son's crewmembers, Barry McAlpine. Since I know both Bert and Barry, this particular episode was especially meaningful to me.
Another episode featured the reunion of an Army nurse who had been instrumental in saving the life of an orphaned, wounded Vietnamese baby with that now-grown "baby" who is an American citizen after her adoption by Americans (who accompanied her)! My glasses fogged up BIG TIME as I watched.
The VC had wiped out the village and the baby, brought to the evac hospital "somewhat" against SOP, was still in her dead mother's arms. Unknown to the crew who medevaced the baby, that last embrace applied sufficient pressure to the hidden belly wound that began to spurt blood when the baby was removed from her mother. The nurse rushed the child to the doctors and told a nearby Catholic priest to baptize the child quickly because the nurse didn't think the child would survive. When it came to the point of adding the child's name to the blessing, the priest looked at the nurse, who blurted out "Kathleen" (from the song "I'll take you home again, Kathleen'). "Kathleen" she was baptized, and as Kathleen she survived.
An epilogue during the closing credits told the viewers that Kathleen now had a child of her own after the 2003 LZ reconnection, and named it after that Army nurse, completing an amazing "circle of life" story.
That nurse proudly showed a photo of Kathleen as a baby, reminding all viewers that while the "baby killer" stories were rampant, there were more stories like the story of the rescued baby, of which she had such obvious pride.
I now consider this a "must have" as soon as it is available. I asked co-producer (with her husband) Cheryl Fries as to when it would be available and she gave me a "reservation form" (contents duplicated below) for notification when they were ready to take orders. There will also be a CD of the original music in the film. (No prices were given.)
For more information about this uplifting, reaffirming documentary, see
www.intheshadowoftheblade.com
Ross Rainwater
ORWAC 70-24
C-1/9 Air Cav, 1st Cav, '70-'71
Secretary, Mid-South Chapter, VHPA
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VIDEO/DVD/SOUNDTRACK RESERVATION FORM
Please do not send payment at this time. We'll let you know where and how to get your products as soon as they're available!
Please Print.
Name:
E-mail:
Address:
City, State, Zip
Phone:
Please reserve ___ VHS copies for me.
Please reserve ___ DVD copies for me.
Please reserve ___ SOUNDTRACK CD copies for me.
Thank you!
Return form to:
Cheryl Fries
Arrowhead Film & Video
ITSOTB
522 E. 6th St.
Austin, TX 78701
or by email to: cfries@arrowheadfilms.com
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