Dear Stoney and all 68th AHC Members,
I wanted to give you an update on the “Honor in the Air” documentary which remembers Scott Alwin and all of you with whom he flew in the 68th Assault Helicopter Company.
Things are moving along.We have started writing the final drafts of the script and also started final editing. We’re still short about $14,000 but Penny and I are still traveling to veterans groups around the Midwest almost every week to do presentations about the project and to try to raise funds…and two weeks ago all three of us (Susan Reetz came too) appeared at the magnificent EAA Museum in front of their new Huey installation. It was pretty darn special and the response was great. We told lots of stories about Scott and the 68th and showed some of the extraordinary footage that was shot by Frans VandenBroek when he was a CrewChief.
Susan has still not taken a dime for any of her time or travel even though this is how she normally makes her living…and neither have Penny or I. This has been a labor of love and respect for Scott and all of you men we have come to care for so deeply.
It has also been an amazing learning experience for me. I’m a multi-published author but the process of creating this film is a whole other animal…we had 250 pages of interview transcripts, over 50 hours of videos, 80 hours of archival film and lots of old photos and letters to reduce to a one hour documentary. That’s a very difficult intellectual and emotional process.
However, there’s still room for some really good photos, film clips, letter quotes, etc. if you have something, please submit it to me or Susan—-ASAP. We want to include the best materials we can…maybe that’s something of yours! Why, we just got an anecdote three days ago from pilot Jim Ward that was great. We already used it in a presentation way up in far northern Wisconsin at the Ashland WI joint VFW/American Legion Veterans Center Tuesday evening. So get them out of that old file or the album (or even your memory!) and send them along.
We hope to have the documentary completed by Veterans Day this November if we secure the final funding we need to finish. We are also pursuing an agreement with PBS to broadcast the documentary. That would fulfill our commitment to produce a film that explores the best about the flyers in Vietnam and educates the public, especially the younger generations, about the caliber of men who fought that war.
We are looking forward to the reunion in 2024 and we want to do a special showing for all of the members of the 68th who attend…but most especially for all those who contributed interviews, information, and support.
Thanks for sharing this update with all the members, Stoney. Let me know if there’s any additional information I can supply.
Pamela Fullerton
Co-Producer ‘Honor in the Air’
(715) 675-4115 (call or text)
Email: Fullertonwrites@gmail. com
www.PJAFullerton.com. (Author’s website)