Vietnam Photo Event at Allegheny Oct 9
Vietnam War Veteran Mike Hastie will display his original photography about the tragedies of the Vietnam War at the Allegheny College Campus Center in Meadville PA on October 9 from 7:00 to 8:30 PM. The event is sponsored by the Allegheny Peace Coalition. For more information contact Sandy Kelson at sandkel@hughes.net (related event at LaRoche College in in McCandless PA October 14).
MIKE HASTIE BIO
I was an Army medic in Vietnam from Sept. 1970, to Sept. 1971. I was in
Vietnam toward the end of the war, where I was experiencing the rapid
disintegration of American involvement in Southeast Asia. I was in a
Cavalry unit, that had four firebase with heavy artillery. There were a
lot of helicopters on the reconnaissance support base I was on. Our
main objective was to keep a main highway open, that was heavily
traveled by convoys. We would see occasional casulties from the field,
and get hit on occasion, but most of what I was seeing was internal
violence within my own unit. I was experiencing the homicides,
suicides, racial unrest, and rampant heroin addiction. By 1971, the
U.S. Army was falling apart in Vietnam. Most American troops in Vietnam
could find no reason for being there. The war had been going on for so
many years, and we still felt we were going nowhere. There was a lot of
anger among American troops throughout Vietnam. The anger was very
frequently express in graffiti, and violence toward fellow soldiers,
and civilians.
Like most veterans, I buried my emotions
when I cam back, only to have them surface with a vengeance years
later. I wound up being hospitalized on two occasions with severe
depression and suicidal ideation. Once in 1980 for two weeks, and in
1994, when I made a trip back to Vietnam. The emotional roller coaster
has taken me to the brink of self-destruction. My story is no
different than a lot of Vietnam veterans I have known for the past
forty years. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder is like having a loaded gun
to your head. If I were to state one word that would best describe the
agony I was going through, it would be the word, BETRAYAL. I felt used
and tossed away by my government like a paper cup after a movie. For
me, the entire Vietnam War was a lie. In order for me to recover from
that political pathology, and the dismantling of my belief system, I
had to feel the emotional pain of being a sacrificial pawn by a
government that did not care if I lived or died. Lying Is The Most
Powerful Weapon In War.
The most profound way I used to get the pain and hatred out of me, was to use the power of photography.
They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but
sometimes it takes a thousand pictures to get it all out. Photography
saved my life, because so many of my images were of other veterans
expressing their grief. They all validated me, and it was a great gift
that saved my sanity. The photography forced me out of my isolation. My
images became my audience, and when that
audience became full, I began to testify, not only for myself, but for
the countless soldiers who were betrayed and violated by their own
government.
Most of those people would never be able to testify,
and I felt it was my duty to speak for the dead, and those who would
never be able to bear witness.
It has been a powerful journey from being left for
dead, to being a force for peace and hope. There is no rest for the
messenger, until the message has been delivered. When the intellect can
no longer censor the soul, the truth is born. When you see an American
soldier or an innocent civilian take his or her last breath, and you find absolutely no justification for
it, that story has to be passed on, even if it eventually takes your
own life.
Mike Hastie
U.S. Army Medic
Vietnam 1970-71