Home› All Encompassing Trip

Vietnam in HD

DS1119DS1119 Posts: 33,497
edited November 2011 in All Encompassing Trip
I've been watching the new special on the History Channel the past couple of nights. My Dad signed up for the Marines out of high school (grew up poor and knew he would be drafted so get it out of the way) and survived the Tet Offensive (tonights show). He served two tours in Vietnam. I've seen some of the pictures he took there and this series makes it more real for me. RIP Dad.
Post edited by Unknown User on

Comments

  • mcgavinjmcgavinj Idaho Falls, ID, USA Posts: 311
    I plan on catching it when it can be streamed on Netflix. I watched WWII in HD and it was very very well done.
  • gimmesometruth27gimmesometruth27 St. Fuckin Louis Posts: 23,305
    DS1119 wrote:
    I've been watching the new special on the History Channel the past couple of nights. My Dad signed up for the Marines out of high school (grew up poor and knew he would be drafted so get it out of the way) and survived the Tet Offensive (tonights show). He served two tours in Vietnam. I've seen some of the pictures he took there and this series makes it more real for me. RIP Dad.
    i watched 2 hours last night. i did not know it was on again tonight. awesome show for sure. i stopped watching the history channel when it became all about truck drivers, loggers, aliens, pawn stars and pickers...shows like this are how the history channel used to be. i could never really imagine what it was like until i watched last night. it was the same way with WWII in HD. you never could understand what it was really like unless you were there, but these shows do a decent job of conveying what it was like.

    my dad did 2 tours as well but really late in the war. he got drafted, and he figured it was easier to do a year or two in the army than 3 years in jail for not going...he hated every minute of it, but he did his duty. he watched the show last night and he said that the only things that they can not convey on tv is the sound and the smell of combat. his unit has reunions every year and my dad coordinated the one they had in 2010. he does not talk about the war very much, even when i ask him about it, but to see him interact with his old army buddies and hear some of their stories is pretty amazing.

    sorry to hear about your dad.
    "You can tell the greatness of a man by what makes him angry."  - Lincoln

    "Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
  • TravelarTravelar Kalamazoo, USA Posts: 3,413
    I watched night 1 and am looking forward to watching the rest of it. My dad did a tour over there, and it's one of the few things he never talks about. I thought the show was well put together and very informative.

    Sorry for your loss.
  • FlaggFlagg Posts: 5,856
    Fascinating stuff. Every bit as good as WWII in HD. Although that one was a little more surprising because really good color footage of WWII is rare and there isn't much left we haven't seen before.

    I figured there would be a lot of interesting footage from Vietnam since basically the whole war was on TV.

    One thing I really didn't like about was the way they whitewashed the Gulf of Tonkin Incident, which was the excuse the US needed to escalate the war. The show only presented the official government position at the time and mentioned none of the controversy surrounding the incident.

    I haven't watched parts 6 and 7 yet.
    DAL-7/5/98,10/17/00,6/9/03,11/15/13
    BOS-9/28/04,9/29/04,6/28/08,6/30/08, 9/5/16, 9/7/16, 9/2/18
    MTL-9/15/05, OTT-9/16/05
    PHL-5/27/06,5/28/06,10/30/09,10/31/09
    CHI-8/2/07,8/5/07,8/23/09,8/24/09
    HTFD-6/27/08
    ATX-10/4/09, 10/12/14
    KC-5/3/2010,STL-5/4/2010
    Bridge School-10/23/2010,10/24/2010
    PJ20-9/3/2011,9/4/2011
    OKC-11/16/13
    SEA-12/6/13
    TUL-10/8/14
  • ComeToTXComeToTX Austin Posts: 7,900
    Great series. Really enjoying it. My Dad was drafted and sent to Vietnam before being sent to Korea to guard the 38th parallel. He's never really opened up about it.
    This show, another show, a show here and a show there.
  • Who PrincessWho Princess out here in the fields Posts: 7,305
    I've read about this and I'm looking forward to seeing it.

    The draft ended when I was a senior in high school, so Vietnam was a big part of my consciousness growing up, including the concern that guys I knew would be drafted and sent over there. I knew lots of people who had brothers that were there and when I was in college I met many Vietnam vets. I became good friends with a guy who was a medic there and it was impossible to get him to really talk about the war. He would tell you crazy stories about going on R&R and how good (and cheap!) the dope was but he wouldn't talk at all about his experiences of combat. He was very bitter in a lot of ways. But I understand his bitterness a little better now. It was inexcusable the way the public treated Vietnam veterans.
    "The stars are all connected to the brain."
  • DS1119DS1119 Posts: 33,497
    My Dad would NEVER talk about Vietnam and then one day he brought out a box and started showing me some photos. I remember it ended abruptly after he showed me a picture of a woman blindfolded and tied up in a pit. He told me she was being interrogated...I asked him what happened...he looked at me picked up the box and that was that. He threw the pictures away evidently because after he passed this spring no one can find them.
Sign In or Register to comment.