PENSACOLA, Fla., January 4, 2024 ― In 2017, WSRE PBS first presented “The 2 Sides Project,” a documentary film that followed American Gold Star sons and daughters on a 2015 trip to Vietnam, where they visited the sites of their fathers’ last known locations and connected with Vietnamese citizens who also lost parents during the Vietnam War.
The third such Gold Star group to make this emotional journey, which has been sponsored by the not-for-profit 2 Sides Project, will leave for Vietnam on January 11.
In conjunction with the upcoming trip and in partnership with 2 Sides Project, WSRE will rebroadcast “The 2 Sides Project” documentary at 8 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 9, and at 6 p.m. on Sunday, Jan. 14, and share Facebook posts from the organization’s founder, Margot Carlson Delogne, while with the group is in Vietnam.
Carlson Delogne is a Gold Star daughter whose father, U.S. Navy pilot Capt. John W. Carlson, was shot down near Bien Hoa on Dec. 7, 1966. He remains missing in action.
She will accompany two pairs of American Gold Star siblings in Vietnam for 11 days.
Mike Walling and Jeff Walling are the sons of a U.S. Air Force pilot, Lt. Col. Charles Walling, who was shot down 35 miles northwest of Ho Chi Minh City on Aug. 8, 1966. He was listed as missing in action until 2011, when his remains were positively identified and returned to the United States for burial at Arlington National Cemetery.
Doug Godfrey and Debb Eller are the son and daughter of a U.S. Air Force pilot, Capt. Johnny Howard Godfrey, who crashed on a close air support mission over Sóc Trăng Province on Jan. 11, 1966. He remains unaccounted for.
Led by Carlson Delogne, the group will travel from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City, visiting cultural and historical sites including the “Hanoi Hilton,” Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum and the Vietnamese Demilitarized Zone that divided the North and the South.
They will attend a memorial ceremony at the temple of the Most Venerable Dr. Thích Thiện Tâm, a leading Buddhist monk, and meet children with birth defects caused by Agent Orange, which still pollutes part of the country’s soil and water supply.
They will also meet sons and daughters, of Vietnamese service members killed during the war, in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City and will pay homage to their own fathers at crash locations near Ho Chi Minh City.
WSRE followers can follow the group in Vietnam via daily posts from Carlson Delogne on the public television station’s Facebook page starting Monday, Jan. 15.
“We invite WSRE viewers to join us as the group experiences—for the first time—the sights, sounds and emotions of a place that figured so large in their lives and finds common ground with a former enemy,” said Carlson Delogne. “It promises to be a transformative experience that shines a light on how, when we cultivate understanding and compassion, we have the building blocks upon which peace can be found.”
“The 2 Sides Project” documentary, directed by Anthony Istrico, is available to watch anytime at wsre.org and on the PBS video app.
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PHOTO NOTES:
Title graphic from the 2017 film “The 2 Sides Project,” which was directed by Anthony Istrico and presented by WSRE PBS for broadcast on public television stations throughout the U.S. Margot Carlson Delogne, Gold Star daughter and 2 Sides Project founder, in Vietnam in 2015.
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