Books by Eric Douglas

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You are here: Home / Books / West Virginia Voices of War premiere set for May 28

West Virginia Voices of War premiere set for May 28

May 22, 2013 By Eric Douglas

Next week, on May 28, I will be premiering the documentary West Virginia Voices of War and a companion book Common Valor. To say this is the biggest project I have taken on would be an understatement.  

You can see the opening to the documentary on my website.

The book, in both print and ebook format, is now available through Amazon.

I ended up traveling more than 2000 miles and collecting 50 hours worth of oral histories from West Virginia war veterans. I completed interviews with 46 veterans from every major conflict since World War II and a number of smaller peace-keeping and humanitarian missions.  It took 15 months and somewhere over 500 hours, although I really have no idea how much time.

 

This project began when I learned from the director of the Veterans History Project at the Library of Congress, at the end of 2011, that only 20 or so oral histories from West Virginia war veterans were in the archives. I’m not a veteran, but I’ve always been intrigued by the comradery that soldiers feel toward each other. There is an esprit de corps among those in the military that is unmatched anywhere else. 

I started talking to friends and dropped in on a couple local VFWs and offered to record oral histories. I knew it would turn into a documentary of some sort although at the time I had no idea what the “story” would be. That is often the nature of documentary work. You don’t know what the story is going to be; you just have to collect the information and see what happens. About halfway through the project, I began to realize how remarkably similar the stories were, regardless of when the veterans served.

 

Along the way, a friend suggested I come out one evening and listen to a veteran sing. Jeff Ellis was singing songs from his album The Line. His record label actually released it while he was home on leave from Iraq. As soon as I heard the title song The Line I knew I wanted to use it in the documentary if I could and fortunately, Jeff graciously allowed me to do just that. 

West Virginia Voices of War is a multimedia presentation, combining audio recordings with still portraits of each veteran. I couldn’t use comments from all of the veterans in the documentary, so I also included edited transcripts from all of the interviews in the book Common Valor. I chose that title because I came to realize that “valor” isn’t necessarily about heroes. In my mind, valor is men and women putting their lives on the line, doing their jobs and doing their best to come home safe and sound. Almost every veteran I interviewed talked about having nightmares or drinking too much when they came home. And almost every one of them said they were proud of what they did and would do it again in spite of the problems.

 

This project would not have been possible if it weren’t for the donors who supported it and the sponsors who are supporting the premiere. The gang at WVSU’s DigiSo provided invaluable service as well.
The documentary will premiere at 7 pm at Emmanuel Baptist Churchat 1401 Washington St W in Charleston on May 28; the day after Memorial Day. The premiere is free and open to the public. Donations will be accepted for the Charleston Veterans Center on the West Side. Copies of Common Valor will be available for sale. Following the premiere, I plan to make the documentary available for local veterans groups and other organizations to show as fundraisers.

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Filed Under: Books, Documentary

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