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ATHENS, Ohio -- Ohio University Public Television presents the documentary, Wandering Souls: Tet '68 Remembered, premiering Monday January 31, at 9:00 p.m. It features Vietnam Veteran and Athens resident Dave Garrod, who, along with several men from the 25th Infantry Division, revisited the Ton Son Nhut battlefield in Vietnam as part of a healing mission. In January of 1998, Garrod, along with OU Telecommunications filmmaker Blis Hanousek DeVault and videographer Helge Kirkhus, documented his return for the 30th Anniversary of the Tet Offensive. The resulting program is the first U.S. production in cooperation with Vietnam Television. The Tet Offensive was a surprise attack launched by the North Vietnamese Army and Viet Cong on January 30, 1968 on South Vietnam's seven largest cities and 30 provincial capitals. Although some 1,000 Americans died in the first week, the tactic failed. By February 10, the infamous Tet Offensive was largely crushed. But the feeling of failure it left on soldiers including Garrod has endured. Also contributing to the documentary is Marjorie Nelson, associate professor at the College of Osteopathic Medicine, who was captured and imprisoned for two months while volunteering Vietnam in 1968. Athens resident Lady Borton, who was in Vietnam during the war, also assisted with the project. The Tet Offensive took place during Tet, a time of religious importance when the Vietnamese mark the lunar new year. During the Offensive, which was one of the bloodiest battles of the war, many were killed and buried in unknown places. According to Garrod, their souls are said to wander, as they have no one to visit their graves or honor them, but can be contacted on the anniversary of their deaths near where they died. Wandering Souls: Tet '68 Remembered is a one-hour documentary chronicling the experience of these Athens, Ohio, residents and how the Tet Offensive affected their lives. Tet '68 Remembered shares the voices from Southeast Ohio and Southeast Asia, educating Americans about the American involvement in Vietnam, through personal closure and new collaborations for veterans. During the men's visit to Vietnam, they came together with Vietnamese men who had also fought in the war along with families who had lost children to it. This journey is not only one of discovery, but of forgiveness and healing. Seeing how the Vietnamese have put the war behind them helped the men to face the ghosts from the past and come to terms with their time of service in the war. Even men such as Dave Garrod, who came home healthy and whole, left part of their souls in Vietnam along with many others. By returning to the place of tragedy and death, sharing personal stories of the past and present, and joining a ceremony to honor the fallen soldiers, Garrod begins to heal his invisible wounds. "Combat Veterans may seem to others to glorify battle or glorify war when telling a war story, but inwardly they're not. They are mourning the loss of their friends and thanking God they were spared," said Garrod. Wandering Souls: Tet '68 Remembered will share this story of Dave Garrod and his troop finding the lost part of themselves and starting the healing process that has evaded them for the past 30 years. Viewers will travel in time through Garrod's experience, said DeVault. "They are searching for closure, searching for forgiveness, understanding, appreciation, a lot of things because they weren't treated very well when they got home from the war," she said of the veterans.
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