thedrifter
09-24-07, 07:57 AM
Where Marine vets talk it through
Monday, September 24, 2007
By JUSTO BAUTISTA
STAFF WRITER
Vincent DeSena of Fairview lost friends at Iwo Jima, and the 87-year-old retired railroad worker rarely talked about the World War II battle, one of the bloodiest in Marine Corps history.
But when a fellow Marine asked him to appear on a local television show and recount the experience, DeSena reluctantly agreed. He wound up appearing three times on "The Gooney Bird Show," describing in a folksy manner boot camp on Parris Island.
"The two drill instructors were Southerners and they hated us [Northerners] something terrible," he said.
But the folksiness ended when DeSena talked about Iwo Jima.
"It was pretty traumatic," said show host John Wilkins, 60, of Bogota, a Vietnam veteran. "We had to edit some of the things he called the Japanese, but it was war."
The wacky-sounding title belies the show's true nature: frank and honest discussion about the Marines and veterans' affairs.
Taped at a Cablevision studio in Teaneck and shown throughout North Jersey, the show is named after the New Milford "Gooney Bird Detachment" of the Marine Corps League, whose members serve as cameramen and sound technicians and sometimes double as guests.
Don't expect fancy sets, dramatic music, reenactments or "Ooh-rahs!"
With two chairs, a Marine Corps flag and stacked rifles for a backdrop, the show is low-budget, low-key and straightforward. But the interviews have produced some unintended results: veterans talking, for the first time, about feelings bottled up for years. In the process, many have become local celebrities.
There was the Marine who survived the siege of Khe Sanh in Vietnam in 1968 and contemplated suicide after friends told him that he was foolish to risk his life for Vietnam. There was the badly wounded Korean War veteran who admitted that his wise-cracking ways were a cover for the gnawing grief he felt for friends killed in action.
"A lot of veterans were in some horrible battles in World War II, Korea, Vietnam," said Jim McCall, 66, of Teaneck, the show's TV chairman. "They come on, and they tell you later, 'I feel real relief I got it out.' It's a healing process."
Chris Gately, 61, of Paramus, was a teenager in 1965 when his unit, the 7th Marine Regiment, fought in Operation Starlite, the first large-scale battle of the Vietnam War.
"Most of us had never heard of Vietnam," said Gately, a retired cosmetics salesman, recalling periods of boredom interrupted by "sharp actions."
In one moment, host Wilkins tries to put Gately at ease, telling him before an intermission, "We'll get you home, live and safe and sound, I guarantee you that."
Gately was wounded several times when his patrol was ambushed by "local hard-core Vietcong" in Chu Lai in December 1965.
"[The interview] was a little hard on him, but he got through it like a trouper," Wilkins said.
Frank Hall, 84, of Teaneck, the show's first producer, said the inspiration for the "The Gooney Bird Show" was Marine Corps Gen. Raymond Davis, a Medal of Honor recipient who, as a lieutenant colonel, led the rescue of hundreds of Marines trapped at the Chosin Reservoir in Korea in 1950.
Davis spoke at an Iwo Jima reunion before his death in 2003 and told the Marines that they "did the job in World War II," but the job wasn't finished.
"He told us we have to educate the current generation on our values, and why we were fighting, the experiences we had," said Hall, who now directs another TV show, "The Semper Fi Program," for a detachment in Saddle River.
"We were also very unhappy with the way schools, all schools, were presenting history," Hall said. "We wanted to make sure our grandchildren had the opportunity to know what these guys did."
The detachment, he said, is carrying out that mission.
Officials at The National Marine Corps Museum in Quantico, Va., have asked for copies of all 76 "Gooney Bird" episodes. And DeSena's three segments have been shown in schools in South Carolina, after a niece asked "Uncle Vinnie" to send them to her.
"I'll tell ya, it went over so big," DeSena said. "It was something."
E-mail: bautista@northjersey.com
Ellie
Monday, September 24, 2007
By JUSTO BAUTISTA
STAFF WRITER
Vincent DeSena of Fairview lost friends at Iwo Jima, and the 87-year-old retired railroad worker rarely talked about the World War II battle, one of the bloodiest in Marine Corps history.
But when a fellow Marine asked him to appear on a local television show and recount the experience, DeSena reluctantly agreed. He wound up appearing three times on "The Gooney Bird Show," describing in a folksy manner boot camp on Parris Island.
"The two drill instructors were Southerners and they hated us [Northerners] something terrible," he said.
But the folksiness ended when DeSena talked about Iwo Jima.
"It was pretty traumatic," said show host John Wilkins, 60, of Bogota, a Vietnam veteran. "We had to edit some of the things he called the Japanese, but it was war."
The wacky-sounding title belies the show's true nature: frank and honest discussion about the Marines and veterans' affairs.
Taped at a Cablevision studio in Teaneck and shown throughout North Jersey, the show is named after the New Milford "Gooney Bird Detachment" of the Marine Corps League, whose members serve as cameramen and sound technicians and sometimes double as guests.
Don't expect fancy sets, dramatic music, reenactments or "Ooh-rahs!"
With two chairs, a Marine Corps flag and stacked rifles for a backdrop, the show is low-budget, low-key and straightforward. But the interviews have produced some unintended results: veterans talking, for the first time, about feelings bottled up for years. In the process, many have become local celebrities.
There was the Marine who survived the siege of Khe Sanh in Vietnam in 1968 and contemplated suicide after friends told him that he was foolish to risk his life for Vietnam. There was the badly wounded Korean War veteran who admitted that his wise-cracking ways were a cover for the gnawing grief he felt for friends killed in action.
"A lot of veterans were in some horrible battles in World War II, Korea, Vietnam," said Jim McCall, 66, of Teaneck, the show's TV chairman. "They come on, and they tell you later, 'I feel real relief I got it out.' It's a healing process."
Chris Gately, 61, of Paramus, was a teenager in 1965 when his unit, the 7th Marine Regiment, fought in Operation Starlite, the first large-scale battle of the Vietnam War.
"Most of us had never heard of Vietnam," said Gately, a retired cosmetics salesman, recalling periods of boredom interrupted by "sharp actions."
In one moment, host Wilkins tries to put Gately at ease, telling him before an intermission, "We'll get you home, live and safe and sound, I guarantee you that."
Gately was wounded several times when his patrol was ambushed by "local hard-core Vietcong" in Chu Lai in December 1965.
"[The interview] was a little hard on him, but he got through it like a trouper," Wilkins said.
Frank Hall, 84, of Teaneck, the show's first producer, said the inspiration for the "The Gooney Bird Show" was Marine Corps Gen. Raymond Davis, a Medal of Honor recipient who, as a lieutenant colonel, led the rescue of hundreds of Marines trapped at the Chosin Reservoir in Korea in 1950.
Davis spoke at an Iwo Jima reunion before his death in 2003 and told the Marines that they "did the job in World War II," but the job wasn't finished.
"He told us we have to educate the current generation on our values, and why we were fighting, the experiences we had," said Hall, who now directs another TV show, "The Semper Fi Program," for a detachment in Saddle River.
"We were also very unhappy with the way schools, all schools, were presenting history," Hall said. "We wanted to make sure our grandchildren had the opportunity to know what these guys did."
The detachment, he said, is carrying out that mission.
Officials at The National Marine Corps Museum in Quantico, Va., have asked for copies of all 76 "Gooney Bird" episodes. And DeSena's three segments have been shown in schools in South Carolina, after a niece asked "Uncle Vinnie" to send them to her.
"I'll tell ya, it went over so big," DeSena said. "It was something."
E-mail: bautista@northjersey.com
Ellie