I talked to one of the BC History Department social media interns about my work.
Category Archives: oral history
Mini-Documentary
Brooklyn College has posted a mini-documentary featuring me and two women who served in Vietnam. (Gotta say, I ain’t a TV natural!)
This was shot over a year ago, and it highlights two amazing women. Sue O’Neil was a nurse at the 27th Surgical Hospital in Vietnam, and Dr. Jeannie Christie served as a Red Cross volunteer in Vietnam
Veterans and Memory
Brooklyn College student Elizabeth Jefimova interviewed World War II veteran Seymour Kaplan on February 24, 2017, at Kaplan’s home in Brooklyn.
In this clip, Kaplan recalls how his willingness to tell his story of service was shut down. He did not speak of the war for fifty years. In my experience as an interviewer, I have often found that veterans are encouraged to be silent about what they have seen and done in war — often by their very own families.
Day Two
Day two of the VVA Board of Directors and Conferencen of State Chapter Presidents meeting, Silver Spring, MD. Very moving and useful. Great opportunities for oral histories here.
The VVA is worrying about its longevity. Some years ago it decided to be a ‘last man standing’ organization. How long can it hold out? If the decision is made to close down, how will this be done? The VVA has assets that will have to be disposed of. But, even as discussion about this issue grows, membership numbers are increasing nationally; VVA now has 78,816 members, an all time high.
Anthony Wallace, a Vietnam Veteran, describes his time at Brooklyn College.
This interview was published on the Brooklyn College website on November 11, 2015.
Interview with Peggy Cornett
One of my favorite interviews for demonstrating my preferred interview technique was conducted in 2005 with Peggy L. Cornett.*
That November I traveled to Washington DC to assist the Texas Tech University Vietnam Center and Archive as they collected oral histories with the men who had served and fought with the 1st Calvary Division at the Battle of Ia Drang Valley, in 1965, and their families.
This was the 40th anniversary of the battle, and many veterans and their families had come to Washington to pay their respects at the Vietnam Memorial wall on the National Mall, and to attend a gala banquet hosted by General
Joan Furey
I just stumbled on two YouTube videos related to Joan Furey, whose story I tell in my book, Bringing It All Back Home.
The first is an ABC news segment, recorded in 1969.
More on Rudy Thomas and the Power of Oral History
Reply
At a panel presentation held at the Brooklyn Historical Society in 2008 called The Impact of Listening and Being Heard, Rudy Thomas said the following:
My grandmother raised me from 2 months old. She brought me here at age 16, I never lived with my mother, and I visited, but never stayed with her.
I had the opportunity to see [her] after 30 years and I wanted to talk to her about my life, One of the first things she said to me was,
Baby Killer Myth
At the NYPL panel discussion I moderated the other night, Earl Jacobson recalled being asked if he had killed babies while serving abroad. (He actually served in Thailand.) This was an accusation frequently — but not invariably — heard by returning Vietnam veterans. It is hard to describe the shock and pain caused by remarks such as this.
Veteran Ron Jensen, who served with