Air crew and Chapter 41 members (from left) CWO Justin McCarthy, Spec. John Webster, Wayne Nelson, Ray Goulet, Ed Deverell, Jim Covatis, CWO Jonathan Shallow, Staff Sgt. Ethan Major, and Sgt. Justin Henderson.
This article appeared in Membership Notes, in the November/December 2016 issue of the VVA Veteran.
New Hampshire Chapter 41 worked closely with the Southern New Hampshire Library Collaborative’s project on Vietnam veterans called “Community Stories: Soldiers Home and Away.” Nine southern libraries and one regional high school were involved in the project, which started September 16 and ran through November 12.
Chapter member Wayne Nelson was the veteran adviser during the planning process and a keynote presenter, with Dr. Kurt Sundstrom of the Currier Museum of Art. He’d made these presentations before on the museum’s special exhibit, Visual Dispatches from the Vietnam War, which combined photos, text, and videos of the war (See March/April 2014, page 4). Ray Goulet and Jim Covatis supported the keynote presentation on September 17 by answering questions about the war. They participated, as well, at presentations in several town libraries.
Opening events took place September 16 and 17 at the Timberlane Regional High School in Plaistow. Vietnam veterans were invited as honored guests. The program included a New Hampshire National Guard Blackhawk medevac helicopter visit to the school. Senior and junior high school students visited with the helicopter crew and chapter members, and they toured the helicopter. The nine libraries hosted a Veterans Service Fair at the high school. Chapter 41 helped recruit many of the thirty-four organizations that participated in the fair.
The program included more than fifty author presentations, film screenings, and book discussions at the libraries. The book discussions focused on Vietnam veteran Tim O’Brien’s classic semi-autobiographical novel, The Things They Carried. Chapter 41 members fielded questions and discussed their experiences during the war.
Some sixteen veterans, scholars, artists, authors, and service organizations put on programs about the challenges facing fighting men and women home and away throughout modern history. The chapter donated a copy of VVA’s Map of Wartime Vietnam to each library.