2017 Veterans’ Voice Award

September 11, 2017, my wife, Patti, and several family members attended the 2017 Veterans’ Voices Award ceremony at University of St. Thomas. The Minnesota Humanities Center started the program in 2013 to recognize Minnesota Veterans who quietly work with the underserved members of our state. I was deeply honored to be selected. The evening had …

6 February 2015: Revisiting the Past

I recently reconnected with Beverly Dawson, the lady I met at Glenview History Center in 2007. This Starlifter picture is from her book, Images of America, Glenview Naval Air Station. (Page 108). Note the bus with the red cross backed up to the back of the medevac aircraft; that’s what we were loaded on to, …

22 August 2007: Revisiting the Past

Have you ever been troubled by an event in your past? Troubled enough to revisit it? I did. I needed to make sense of why antiwar protestors would attack a hospital bus carrying wounded troops. The discoveries I made have had far-reaching effects. Here is the story, published in Vietnam magazine about my 2007 visit. …

Muddy Jungle Rivers Book Discussion Wednesday, April 23, 2014

(Written by Patt Rall, Bemidji Pioneer Previews, published Sunday, April 20, 2014.) •Northern Exposure to Lifelong Learning continues their spring season of talks with “A Healing Journey with Wendell Affield,” who is the author of “Muddy Jungle Rivers.” Affield will talk about his life after publication of his book, and his speaking engagements when he …

Mobile Riverine Force Museum To Visit 2014 Beltrami County Fair

David Quam, a local Bemidji, MN, resident, has a mission: to document on film World War II veteran’s stories. David’s home page: http://www.ww2bji.org/ I felt honored when he asked to record my Muddy Jungle Rivers experience. David recently learned of my plan to bring our Mobile Riverine Force Museum to Beltrami County Fair. He has …

Muddy Jungle Rivers Book Discussion: A Healing Journey——April 23, 2014

Sponsored By: Northern Exposure to Lifelong Learning (NELL) Program will be in Gonvick Community Center: Coffee at 9am, program at 9:30 and wrap up around 11 or so. depending on questions. Open to the public (From NELL Newsletter) In January 1968 Wendell Affield went to Vietnam as the cox’n of Armor Troop Carrier 112-11 with …

National Geographic History Special

March 26, 8 PM Mobile Riverine Force Vietnam For those of you who have read Muddy Jungle Rivers, or are interested in the river war in Vietnam, this History Special will add a new layer of understanding. See the trailer at: http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/episodes/brothers-in-war/ Through gripping first-person accounts and digitally remastered archival footage, including the soldiers’ own …

Ambush Survivors Reunited 45 Years Later: Memories from August 18, 1968

From left to right: Larry Reid, Cleve Chick, David L. Cowley, Larry R. McCormick, Wendell Affield (To put this blog post in context, please read the August 18 post.) Reunions can be poignant, frightening, illuminating. This past week my wife, Patti, and I attended the 2013 Mobile Riverine Force Association Reunion held in Indianapolis. I …