by John Dowd
Ravalli County Museum in Hamilton.
For two years in the making, the Ravalli County Museum has been preparing for a special 50 year commemoration of the end of one of the most controversial and important conflicts of American history. March 29 is National Vietnam Veterans Day, and this year will be the 50 year anniversary of the end of U.S. involvement in the war in Vietnam. The idea to do something special this year came from national interest in remembering the Vietnam conflict among museums and historical societies across America.
According to Michelle Nowling, Museum Director, there was “no way our little museum could cover the entire scope of the war.” Instead, they decided to do what they usually do, and give the history a local perspective and have it revolve around the oral histories of Bitterrooters. As Nowling described it, the exhibit will be, “looking at the whole of the conflict, through the lens of Bitterroot veterans.”
Nowling said they worked with local Vietnam organizations and veterans to come up with numerous individuals. Five were filmed for an accompanying documentary, and 15 recorded their oral history. The oral histories will be used in the exhibit and other projects. These individuals, and the exhibit, will cover everything from the draft to their daily life, and letters sent home to the five KIAs, service men and women that were killed in action.
According to Nowling, there will not be “a lot of us explaining the war to people.” Instead, the exhibit will cover the experiences these individuals had, telling about the war through their experiences. Additionally, these people include not only soldiers, but women nurses, civilians, submariners, pilots and many more. These individuals are all “people of the Bitterroot, people we know and how they experienced the war,” said Nowling. According to her, their goal is to share both sides of the conflict, giving both perspectives for and against it.
The other part of the commemoration will be the documentary. Peggy Riemer is on the museum board, and was the producer of the film. The documentary was filmed last summer, around the end of July. Riemer worked with Christian Jessop, the documentary editor, and Wyatt Weidow, the film’s director of photography. Together, they worked to film and interview several people of the Bitterroot connected to the war.
The film will include a range of experiences, including members of the U.S. Navy, pilots and more, and will showcase a grander scope of “all of the larger Cold War, of which Vietnam was a proxy,” said Riemer. “We were very honored to talk to the veterans and hear their stories.” For her, it was “a powerful and moving experience,” and produced “a record of Vietnam and how it affected the community of the Bitterroot.”
Riemer has a theater director background, and has worked on a few small film projects in the past. When the museum board had the idea to make a documentary, she loved the idea. To her, it was a fantastic opportunity and even broadened her own view of the conflict.
“It’s easy to look at the war and see it through a historic lens,” said Riemer. “The war is so fraught with feelings still.” However, she found that after speaking with so many voices, it not only added a personal perspective, but allowed her, and she hopes others, to “see it with sort of a larger, more international state of mind.”
The documentary will be premiering Thursday, February 13 at the Victor Performing Arts Center, starting at 7 p.m. The film will also be free to schools, service organizations, churches and similar groups who want to show the film. The museum exhibit will show at the end of March, on National Vietnam Veterans Day. Visitors to the museum will be able to find it in the courtroom gallery, the largest space in the museum. It will be there from then until mid-November, after Veterans Day.
