"Over the years, some of them wondered if the battle had even happened."
Adam Piore
On Memorial Day, WNPR will air a special documentary about men who served in Delta Company, a Vietnam-era paratrooper unit. It's called "We've Never Been the Same: A War Story."
Freelance journalist Adam Piore worked on the documentary with Jay Allison and Transom.org. In an interview, Piore said he first heard about Delta Company while stuck in an office, working as a magazine editor.
"These guys went to Vietnam, and in the aftermath of the Tet Offensive, they stumbled upon a North Vietnamese base camp and they were outnumbered 20 to one. They became a company of heroes," Piore said.
It was a long battle, and Delta Company lost men that night in March of 1968.
Three of the survivors Piore interviewed live in Connecticut. They are Bill Heaney of East Haven, Calvin Heath of Putnam, and Paul "Bud" Bucha of Ridgefield.
Bucha was the former company commander whose actions that night earned him the Congressional Medal of Honor, the highest honor the nation bestows on service members.
Piore interviewed members of the unit in several states. Piore said the documentary also tells the story of how the men moved on from Vietnam and the trauma they experienced.
"After this battle, the company was decimated," Piore said. "Everybody went off on their own. They had no way to contact each other. Over the years, some of them wondered if the battle had even happened. Then the Internet came along. They started to find each other again, and they reunited. It's an incredible story of healing."
This is Piore's first time working on a radio documentary after years as a journalist for newspapers and magazines. He said there are two reasons he spent so much time on telling Delta Company's story.
"I was hoping to help these guys find their brothers who are still out there -- the ones who are struggling alone, and don't know their friends from Delta Company are trying to find them," Piore said. "But also, these guys have some wisdom to impart to younger vets coming back today about how they managed to live with the demons of their past, and it's hard to do it alone. By reconnecting, and finding the people they were with, and talking about it, they were able to make friends with the past to a certain extent -- at least they don't have to run from it anymore. It didn't haunt them like the way it used to, and they were able to find a place for trauma in their lives and continue on."
"We've Never Been the Same: A War Story" airs Monday at 9:00 am and 7:00 pm on WNPR.
