Veterans and Friends of Danang Emotional Return to Vietnam to Air on Emmy-Award-Winning WQED in High Definition - Video Available

Veterans and Friends of Danang Emotional Return to Vietnam to Air on Emmy-Award-Winning WQED in High Definition - Video Available

Online Diary Also Chronicles Young Woman's Experiences on the Project

PITTSBURGH, Nov. 3 /PRNewswire/ -- The 16-year-long Vietnam War was the longest-running conflict in U.S. military history. Though it has been more than three decades since the end of one of the most divisive wars in human history, there is a group of Americans -- mostly Pittsburghers -- making regular pilgrimages to Vietnam with the hopes of healing at least some of the old wounds. They call themselves the Friends of Danang. They are veterans of that war and their work goes beyond mere messages of reconciliation.

To view the Multimedia News Release, go to: http://www.prnewswire.com/mnr/wqed/25893/

The story of one trip back for this group will be told in WQED's production of In Country: A Vietnam Story which premieres on WQED tv13 on Thursday, November 9 at 8 p.m. The show will repeat at 10pm. The program will be broadcast in high-definition (HD) format. "In Country: A Vietnam Story" is being reviewed by several public broadcasting distribution services for national airing in 2007.

Many of the Americans who served their country in Vietnam are mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, bosses, patients, senators and co-workers. For men and women of a certain age, it is the galvanizing experience that binds them together. WQED Multimedia's Chris Moore is one of those people. The Emmy-Award-winning producer and program host has kept a close kinship with Sergeant LeRoy Perry of Wilmington, North Carolina and Specialist 5th Class Andrew Boone of Chicago. Together, the three shared the life-changing experiences of that war and together they return to Vietnam for the first time since being discharged more than 35 years ago.

As an hour-long documentary, In Country: A Vietnam Story, tells two emotional stories, separate yet intertwined. There are the "Friends" themselves, the men and women who travel to and from Vietnam on a bi-annual basis, devoting their energies and talents to building an elementary school for the children of Danang. Their current reconciliation efforts are devoted to providing prosthetic and orthopedic rehabilitation services for Vietnamese children as well as funding the construction of a second school there.

Then there's Chris Moore, who has long given top priority to improving the public's perception of Vietnam vets and their causes. Moore and his two friends, Boone and Perry, were three young black men barely out of their 20s when they served. Though they were from different states, they gravitated to each other, the two older men taking Moore under their collective wing. Their stories are filled with the youthful antics and laughs that come easily to boys who have only recently become men. But their stories are also filled with moments of sheer terror, and the plain truth that their lives could end at any moment.

"To me, this trip is about returning to that land a little unsure of what we will find," says Moore, "and we're hoping to mend the physical wounds and those that are in my heart. If I had to live my life over, I would go to Vietnam again, even if I were unsure of the outcome," he added, "because it is about the people you meet ... the friends you become by serving together and sharing a bond. It seems like yesterday but it also seems so long ago."

Co-Producer Minette Seate kept an online journal of the trip to Vietnam in which she shares her eye-opening experiences on the ten-day trip to produce the program. Seate describes everything she saw and felt: the incredible heat, the cultural dress, the capitalism in a communist country, the traffic of Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, the visit to the war museum, the beautiful countryside, and the friendly and welcoming people of Vietnam. The entire journal can be accessed on WQED's web site at http://www.wqed.org/.

In Country: A Vietnam Story was funded by UPMC.

About Friends of Danang

The Friends of Danang is a humanitarian organization headquartered in Pittsburgh. The volunteer organization raises money for humanitarian projects in and around the city of Danang, Vietnam. Its aim is to nurture better understanding between the citizens of Pittsburgh and Danang regions. The mission is accomplished by building schools and a medical clinic in partnership with nonprofit organizations such as the Vietnam Children's Fund and East Meets West Foundation. One hundred percent of all contributions are applied to the costs of the projects.

Friends of Danang founder Tony Accamando of Pittsburgh has a long and distinguished record of humanitarian service, particularly to veterans. After completing a tour of duty in Vietnam, he founded two organizations to help others affected by the war: Veterans' Cable Services, which hires and trains only veterans, and Friends of Danang. Accamando is also a board member of the Vietnam Veteran Leadership Program in Pittsburgh.

About This High-Definition Television Program

In Country: A Vietnam Story was shot in high-definition format which fully captures the richness of the lush scenery, the frenetic pace of the city, and the culture of the people of Vietnam. High-definition television (HDTV) is a broadcasting system with a significantly higher resolution than traditional formats. HDTV offers a more lifelike picture and digital sound quality and more than doubles the resolution compared to analog televisions for superior picture quality.

How to Buy the DVD

A DVD of In Country: A Vietnam Story is available for $19.95 plus shipping and handling through Shop WQED at http://www.wqed.org/ or by calling 1-800-274-1307.

About WQED Multimedia

WQED Multimedia, honored with the Mid-Atlantic Emmy Award for Station Excellence and eight other Emmy Awards in 2006, provides quality products and services to engage, inform, educate and entertain the public within its community and around the world. It is the parent company of WQED tv13 (PBS), WQEX tv16, WQED fm89.3, WQEJ fm89.7/Johnstown, a publishing division that includes PITTSBURGH magazine, local and national television and radio productions, http://www.wqed.org/ and the WQED Education and Community Resource Center.

WQED was the first community-supported public broadcasting station in the United States.

Photo Credits

Minette Seate, Dino DiStefano, and Darryl Ford Williams; Courtesy of WQED Multimedia, Pittsburgh

Video: http://www.prnewswire.com/mnr/wqed/25893
Source: WQED Multimedia

CONTACT: Rosemary Martinelli, +1-412-622-6433, rmartine@wqed.org, or
George Hazimanolis, +1-412-622-1366, ghaziman@wqed.org, both of WQED
Multimedia

Web site: http://www.wqed.org/

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