MILITARY ENTHUSIASTS ADD RAPE, MURDER TO VIETNAM WAR RE-ENACTMENT

August 19 2009

Boalsburg, PA – The war in Vietnam still stands today as one of the most important wars in the history of the world. From its bright beginnings to its ignoble end the conflict has allied itself amongst the greatest conflicts man has ever fought, and as an
ultimate example of David defeating Goliath. The loss of that war and the meandering and unfocused nature of the battle when it was being fought made it one of the most difficult and damaging to fight, both for the Americans and Vietnamese, which has earned it a venerable place in the history of conflict.

Now a group of military re-enactors have decided to eschew their traditional fare and taken on the conflict of Vietnam. Traditionally conflicts such as the Revolutionary War and the Civil War are the fodder for such re-enactments but the sudden and surprising inclusion of such a recent and traumatic war has gotten many
excited about the future of re-enactments. The group though isn’t shying away from the horrors of the bloody war and vow to make the conflict as historically accurate as possible, including rape and mass murder.

“We do it to honor these guys and to tell them, ‘You weren’t forgotten’. Really this is a tribute to the men who made the ultimate sacrifice in this war and fought to preserve our freedom. We want them to realize that they are appreciated and that what they did for us all those years ago has not gone forgotten,” said James Watt who plays a platoon leader. “Because this war is so well known to so many people we had to make sure it was as historically accurate as possible. We wanted to show the dark side of the war and not just present the glory. There were dark deeds
committed in the conflict and we want to acknowledge that, though we won’t dwell on it. We are honoring the heroism but in doing so we need to acknowledge the trauma as well.”

The re-enactors have already begun pulling locals from their homes and forced them to take part, something which has caused some headaches with the police. Undeterred the group plans to pull as many people as necessary in order to make the conflict work.

“We’ve tried to get as many details right as we possibly can. Unfortunately there aren’t a lot of Vietnamese people in and around the area so we’ve had to resort to some blusher and a whole lot of scotch tape. We are trying to find a solution to that because we tend to sweat a lot and the tape is just sliding off our faces,” said Gary Cain who plays a Vietcong sergeant. “Obviously we aren’t going to really bash people’s heads in or set their houses on fire but we want to give that illusion. We’ve got civilian areas set up where we can mock rapes and burning children alive. This is really the most authentic re-enactment I’ve ever been a part of.”

The group has also poured defoliants across significant amounts of the surrounding fields and exposed as many people to the chemical as possible.

“There are a handful of things that we weren’t able to accomplish this time around but hope to get right the next time we do a re-enactment. Things like drug smuggling and having protestors on the sidelines are things we hope to integrate the next time around,” continued Cain. “We feel a great deal of responsibility to make this as accurate as possible to honor the people who made the ultimate sacrifice in order to make our country safe.”

The group next plans to re-enact World War II as soon as they are able to locate more Jews.  

Mike Michaels, American Correspondent

NEWS > U.S.A. > MILITARY ENTHUSIASTS ADD RAPE, MURDER TO VIETNAM WAR RE-ENACTMENT