Helicopter Crew to Visit Embry-Riddle to Record Vietnam War Memories
Daytona Beach, Fla., Sept. 19, 2002 -- Veterans of the Vietnam War and their families are invited to share their stories Friday, Oct. 4, when a restored UH-1 Huey helicopter traveling the nation as part of a film documentary project makes a stop at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.
Embry-Riddle, its Army ROTC Dept., and the organization Army Pilot to Airline Pilot are sponsoring the visit of a production crew making a feature-length film titled In the Shadow of the Blade. The goal of the documentary is to pay tribute to Vietnam veterans with an accurate, dignified account told in their own words.
The Embry-Riddle event will start at noon in the shaded picnic area near the John Paul Riddle Student Center. The Huey will be on display, and veterans and their guests may enjoy a barbecue lunch.
Frank Antone is the flight director and the aircraft commander of the visiting helicopter. Antone was a U.S. Army Huey pilot and one of nine Army aviators shot down and captured during the Vietnam War. Jim Palmersheim is the assistant flight director and the co-pilot. He was a U.S. Army rotary and fixed-wing pilot, with 11 years of military service. Palmersheim currently flies as a captain for American Airlines.
The film crew will collect stories from and about Vietnam veterans who flew, maintained, or were rescued by Huey helicopters. Filmmaker Pat Fries of Arrowhead Films in Austin, Texas, chose the UH-1 Iroquois, or "Huey," because most soldiers had some kind of connection to it. The versatile Huey, known as the workhorse of the Vietnam War, was used by all branches of the U.S. military for transportation, evacuation, and assault. The visiting Huey saw service in Vietnam. Later it was purchased and restored by the Texas Air Command Museum in Fort Worth.
Along with veterans' stories, In the Shadow of the Blade will include photos, rare home movies shot during missions, actual cockpit recordings, artwork, and songs recorded on battlefields. Fries hopes that the documentary will be broadcast on a major cable network, and that the film and the personal memorabilia featured in it will become part of the U.S. Army Aviation Museum at Ft. Rucker, Ala.
For more information about the film project, see www.intheshadowoftheblade.com. For more information on the Embry-Riddle event, contact Army ROTC at (386) 226-6470 or armyrotc@erau.edu.
Embry-Riddle, the world's largest, fully accredited university specializing in aviation and aerospace, meets the needs of students and industry through its educational, training, research, and consulting activities. Embry-Riddle educates 24,000 students annually through the master's level at residential campuses in Daytona Beach, Fla., and Prescott, Ariz., at more than 150 teaching centers in the United States and Europe, and through distance learning.
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