By Donn Nemchick The United Service Organizations (USO) established a tradition of sending comedian Bob Hope and a troupe of entertainers to Vietnam and other Southeast Asia bases during the holiday season to entertain American troops. Hope became widely known as “a one-man morale machine,” bringing variety shows — complete with comedy routines, songs,
By Ed Fender The Vietnam War—officially a “Conflict,” since Congress never declared it—has been written about endlessly. Rather than re-analyze it, I set down my own experience in a memoir titled Vietnam (1970–1971) – My Way, which now sits in the Hazel Braugh Records Center and Archives of the American Red Cross in Washington,
By Todd DePastino On November 3, 2025, Navy Corpsman Steve Giordano joined our Open Conversation livestream, and shared some of his story of serving aboard the USS Sanctuary (AH-17) off the coast of Vietnam in 1967. Steve offered eye-opening testimony life and work on the most advanced floating trauma hospital in the world,
By Todd DePastino For more than thirty years, Vietnam veteran and artist Thomas Morrissey has been trying to build a proper Vietnam War memorial in the heart of Providence, Rhode Island. The effort has moved through hopeful starts, unexpected setbacks, new committees, and long bureaucratic stalls. But Tom has kept pushing. He’s determined that
Crewmen aboard the destroyer USS ARTHUR W. RADFORD (DD-968) participate in the traditional shellback initiation ceremony during Exercise Unitas XXI. The shellback initiation takes place anytime a U.S. Navy ship crosses the equator. By Donn Nemchick There is a long standing maritme tradition to have a ceremony when the ship crosses the
By Vietnam Marine Veteran Rich Thurmond We called the United States “The World” in Vietnam. That's how it felt. Vietnam seemed like another planet altogether, and “The World” was the distant place we dreamed of going back to. My return home almost didn’t happen on schedule. Two days before I was supposed to leave,
