Retired O-R photographer shares stories from Vietnam
Longtime colleagues of retired Observer Publishing Co. photographer Jim McNutt may have been aware that he once served in Vietnam, but as was the case with many veterans of that era, he mentioned his experiences rarely, if at all.
With the passage of half a century since the height of the Vietnam War, many of those who saw action are starting to speak more freely about what they encountered. And McNutt has recorded eight stories, including his own, for the video series “We Were There: Vietnam Memories of the War,” available for viewing on the Peters Township Public Library website.
Harry Funk / The Almanac
Harry Funk / The Almanac
A video plays inside the “bunker” that was set up in the lobby of Peters Township Public Library throughout April.
Throughout April, the library hosted a display for the project featuring a lookalike bunker, decorated by students in the Peters Township High School Art Club, inside of which the videos played on a television screen.
McNutt, a Peters resident who produces an ongoing “Senior Memories” video series in conjunction with the Observer-Reporter, preceded his career at the newspaper with a tour in Vietnam as a U.S. Army news correspondent. In his video, he recalls covering the 60th Infantry Division at the scene.
“We’d go out and sweep through a rice paddy and go through a village, get back on the boats, move on down.
“We had just gotten back on the boats and were moving down the canal when we were ambushed. We had enemy on both sides of us, and the cannons are firing away. The machine guns are firing away. And I’m standing there narrating the action, which the colonel didn’t appreciate.”
The officer moved a radiotelephone operator to McNutt’s spot.
“I had just stepped back and continued to narrate the action when a rocket hit right where I had been standing,” he continues. “Everybody was knocked flat from the shock. It was almost like you were numb.
“I could feel blood on me, and it was actually the RTO,” he says about the operator. “The soldier was on top of me, bleeding. He had a stomach wound. He was bleeding pretty bad. And I’m still – which I didn’t even know at the time, until I got back to the base to play the recording – I was still talking, still narrating the action.”
The video then includes the actual American Forces Vietnam Network audio about the attack, including McNutt’s reporting.
Also featured in “Vietnam Memories” are Army veterans George Dvorznak, Ron Worstell, Jim Puhala, Richard Gotch and Dr. Peter Bonadio; Judge Michael McCarthy of the Fifth Judicial District of Pennsylvania, who served as a Navy Seabee; and Peters Township resident Patricia Fink, a civilian who speaks about support that the Marine Corps Ladies Auxiliary gave to the wounded Vietnam veterans in Pennsylvania.
Featured on video are: top, from left, Richard Gotch, adviser, U.S. Military Assistance Command, Vietnam; Ron Worstell, light weapons infantryman; Jim McNutt, U.S. Army News correspondent; Dr. Peter Bonadio, Medical Corps. Bottom: George Dvorznak, commander, 229th Supply and Service Company; Jim Puhala, helicopter pilot, 1st Cavalry Division; Judge Mike McCarthy, Navy Seabee; and Patricia Fink, who speaks from the civilian’s perspective about the Vietnam War.
Working on the project with McNutt was Diane Lioon, secretary of the Peters Township Library Foundation. She met him in conjunction with the video he produced last year for the library’s 60th anniversary celebration and then started collaborating on “Senior Memories,” assisting McNutt with tasks including communications and recruitment.
The library, she said, will feature the series again for an Aug. 23 program by Todd DePastino, founding director of the regional Veterans Breakfast Club, who in March led a contingent of Vietnam veterans on a trip back to the nation for the first time since the war.
Another Vietnam-related program is in November, when the library foundation hosts author Tim O’Brien, whose “The Things They Carried” is a collection of semi-autobiographical stories inspired by his own Vietnam War experiences.
Lioon said that the “Vietnam Memories” project has been a learning experience for her.
“I was too young to know much about the Vietnam War, and then when I was in high school, nobody really wanted to talk about that. So it’s been a real honor for me to meet these veterans and hear their stories.”
“We Were There: Vietnam Memories of the War” is funded partially by the Peters Township Library Foundation, in partnership with the Observer-Reporter. For more information and to watch the videos, visit www.ptlibrary.org/vietnam-memories-videos.
For more information about “Senior Memories,” visit observer-reporter.com/series/seniormemories.