Courageous Conversations

Film poster for Ken Burns' The Vietnam War

Courageous Conversations

Maine Public is encouraging Vietnam Veterans and anyone affected by the conflict to share their own story on the Vietnam War and correspondence they had during or after the war. Submissions can be written, recorded or videotaped and sent to Maine Public at mystory@mainepublic.org. The stories will be collected and archived here and some may be shared with the greater Maine audience.

Watch "Courageous Conversations."

Click HERE for support opportunities for veterans in crisis.

Susan W. Bonis

Our story is truly a love story. Howard, my husband was critically wounded in Vietnam in the mid-sixties. He was medevac’d to St. Albans Naval Hospital,…
1971 Tay Ninh, Vietnam “Highjacked in Cambodia”

I participated in two invasions of Cambodia. The first was the U.S. invasion in the Spring of 1970. The second was in early 1971 (a couple of weeks before…
Brian Prahl

April 1970 III Corps South Vietnam (Tan An AO) “First week in the field and first time to take fire”During my first mission flying out of Tan An as a…
Dr. Eleanor Saboski, Kennebunkport

From 1963 to 1965 I was in Bangladesh serving in the Peace Corps. We were all unaware about what was happening to the east of us. Eventually all of us…
Richard W. Sevigny

MY VIETNAM TOUR 66/67Read more…While stationed at my first base (Little Rock AFB) after tech. school I received my orders to go to Vietnam on May 1966. I…
Jeff P. Russell, Esq.

I grew up with war. My older uncles slogged through the toughest battles in the South Pacific during WWII. My Dad served Stateside during Korea and lead…
Mark Baldwin, Surry

I didn’t go to Vietnam. I spent the war eating tear gas on the streets. I was near a lot police brutality but, with one exception, I was never roughed…
Janet Galle

My story is a long one and it begins in 1961 at Miami University where my husband-to-be (Pete) and I were close college friends with Dam Trung Phap (who…
Michael Simoneau, Sp 5, US Army Sept '69 to April '72

My little high school in Livermore Falls lost its first serviceman in Vietnam in 1964. He was a rugged farm boy who enlisted in the Marines and he was…
Daniel Gaiser

I graduated from college in 1968 and went into the Army. I was trained in Arabic and Prisoner-Of-War Interrogation.My family heritage was German, and…