’50 Years Beyond: The Vietnam Veteran Experience’ at the Virginia War Memorial in Richmond

On January 27 the Virginia War Memorial in Richmond opened a new exhibit, “50 Years Beyond: The Vietnam Veteran Experience,” centered on in-depth video interviews with 50 Virginia Vietnam War veterans recorded in Richmond and elsewhere throughout the state. The exhibit, which runs through the end of the year and then will travel around the state, honors the service of Vietnam War veterans on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the January 27, 1973, signing of the Paris Peace Accords.

Photographer and U.S. Navy veteran Laura Hatcher and videographer Pamela Vines, a U.S. Army veteran, are the creative team behind the exhibit, which includes photographs of the veterans during their tours of duty, along with the video interviews. You can see clips of some of the interviews on the Memorial’s website.

A striking color photograph of Mike Kittle, who served with the 25^th Infantry Division in Vietnam, taken in country in 1969 by former U.S. Army photographer and  correspondent Jeffrey Hinman, is the presenting image of the exhibition.

“After unsuccessful attempts and more than forty years after the photo was taken, Jeff was able to locate Mike and share this image,” Jere Kittle wrote on her website.

“The photo shows Mike, back from the last of his combat field missions wearing the helmet cover he painted while waiting to be shipped out of Vietnam for the last time.” Mike Kittle died on March 26, 2022.

–February 16, 2023

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