Hospital to show Vietnam film
Event highlights Hospital Week
CARIBOU, Maine — Cary Medical Center will present the award-winning Vietnam War documentary film, “In the Shadow of the Blade,” Tuesday evening, May 10, 2016 in the Chan Center at 6:30 p.m.
The event will be part of the hospital’s celebration of National Hospital Week, May 814. Broadcast on the Discovery Military Channel and winner of numerous awards, including Worldfest International Film Festival’s “Best of Show” and a Vietnam Veterans of America President’s Award, the film explores how courage, loyalty, patriotism and love are enduring forces even in the face of war and its shadowy aftermath.
The focus is the trip of a restored Vietnam War UH-1H Huey helicopter as it makes a historic journey across America to hear stories of Vietnam veterans and their families. Bill Flagg, director of community relations and development, said that in addition to the film, Vietnam War lapel pins will be provided to Vietnam-era veterans.
“We had scheduled this film earlier this year,” said Flagg, who is Cary’s veterans’ liaison, “but we cancelled due to poor weather. It will be great that we can distribute these beautiful and meaningful lapel pins to those veterans who served during the Vietnam era.”
To be eligible for a pin, an individual must be a living United States veteran who served on active duty in the U. S. armed forces at any time during the period Nov. 1, 1955-May 15, 1975, regardless of location.
Flagg pointed out that he is also working to collect veterans’ war stories; veterans of all wars are invited to participate in this project.
“We hope that veterans throughout our area will be willing to share their wartime experiences with us,” he said. “We would like to capture them on video and audio and send them to the National Archives in Washington, D. C. With the death of so many World War II veterans, we have lost a great opportunity to get these remarkable stories and preserve them for future generations. We will be scheduling events to record individual veterans over the next several months and we invite veterans or family members to be in touch with us.”
Veterans or surviving family members who would like to be involved in the effort to collect stories are invited to contact Flagg through the Office of Community Relations at Caryat 498-1112.
Veterans interested in viewing the documentary are invited to bring a spouse or other family members. However, space is limited and reservations would be appreciated. To reserve space call Cary at 498-1112 or contact Flagg directly by email at bflagg@carymed.org.
