Thursday, January 03, 2013

Video Documentary: Entertaining Vietnam

This brought back some memories. Entertaining Vietnam is a short documentary about non-USO entertainers in Vietnam, many of them Australians, who had to live by their wits and fly by the seat of their pants to bring their shows to GIs in the boonies and places where the establishment acts didn't -- or wouldn't -- go.

Several of these performers, such as Cathy Wayne (shown in this film), were actually killed in Vietnam, including a van full of band members who were killed in a "friendly fire" ambush by South Vietnamese "Ruff Puffs" (RF-PF, Regional Force-Popular Force, the dimwitted morons of the Vietnamese forces) on the road to Vung Tao. The same road on which I served as a shotgun guard on convoys (of course the Ruff-Puffs weren't about to take on a heavily armed convoy of American troops).

These entertainers are an unsung and forgotten lot whose story has not been told until now. Be sure to check this out as soon as possible, since I think it will be available for only a limited time.

Sorry I couldn't embed it.

3 Comments:

Unknown said...

Thanks for the link, watched the film, started looking at the rest of what they have, very entertaining, thought provoking site. Luckly i got to stay stateside, and missed the problems there. But then I retired USAFR,

the yellow fringe said...

That was amazing. Another hour squandered, and I feel OK with it.

double nickel said...

Thanks for the link. finally watched it yesterday, and forwarded it to my cousin who was a reporter in Vietnam during those days.