Boocoo Dinky Dow
  • Home
  • Buy the book
  • Excerpt
  • Blog
  • The authors

Library with a view (and 'Boocoo Dinky Dow') 

7/16/2013

0 Comments

 
Picture
There's no place better than a library. Except maybe one with a gorgeous view. This is what Spokane Public Library visitors see from the north-facing downtown windows: the Spokane River as it heads under the Monroe Street bridge.

I'm pleased to report that it's the latest library to have a copy of "Boocoo Dinky Dow: My short, crazy Vietnam War" in its collection. Because if there's anything better even than a library with a view, it's one containing a book with my name on the cover!

Grady Myers would be so pleased that his memoir can be checked out there. He and I worked for awhile at the Spokesman-Review newspaper a few blocks away. He later followed the river 40 miles to the east, putting his artistic talent to use for the U.S. Forest Service in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho.

Picture
Grady's favorite reading material? Books about collectible cars, fantasy/science fiction, military history. I hope folks who want to read his story -- which one reviewer called "part 'M*A*S*H' and part 'Full Metal Jacket'" -- remember that they can ask their local library to order it. That makes it a gift to the community. Which is the literary version of having your cake, and eating it, too.

0 Comments

Bravo! and then some to these filmmakers

7/10/2013

0 Comments

 
PictureKen Rodgers at Khe Sanh
It's not pro-war. It's not anti-war. It's just a story about what happened.

It could have been me saying that about the Grady Myers memoir that I co-authored, Boocoo Dinky Dow: My short, crazy Vietnam War. But the words were coming from Ken Rodgers. He was in my living room, talking about the documentary Bravo! Common Men, Uncommon Valor. The book and the film have a lot in common.

"Boocoo Dinky Dow" got started decades ago when I asked Grady, then my co-worker and later my husband, if I could write down his intense but sometimes comic stories about his Army training and the combat experiences that almost cost him his life. "Bravo!" emerged from annual reunions of Ken and his fellow Marines who survived the battle of Khe Sanh. Hundreds of Marines and thousands of North Vietnamese died in the 77-day siege. It began in January 1968, nearly a year before Grady's boots hit the red soil of Southeast Asia.

Betty Rodgers attends those Khe Sanh reunions with her husband. After hearing the veterans' stories year after year, she asked if anyone had recorded those dramatic first-person accounts. Not really, she was told. So the couple plunged into the world of film production. After a tremendous amount of interviewing, writing, research, travel and fund raising, the documentary emerged.

Now, Betty says, she can rest easy because "the history of the men of Bravo Company at Khe Sanh will be preserved forever, no longer evaporating into thin air after each telling."

PictureKen and Betty Rodgers
Ken is a right-brain, left-brain kinda guy, with degrees in accounting and fine arts. His varied career has ranged from sheep herding to selling real estate. He has a penchant for writing poetry and taking eye-popping pictures. Betty is also a lifelong photographer, a "Jill of all trades" and, clearly, a force of nature.  "Bravo!" was their first video project.

They live in Boise, Idaho. That's where Grady lived when he was drafted, where he and I met after the war, and where he died in 2011.

Ken and Betty have been traveling the country, showing "Bravo!" in town halls, campus auditoriums, conference rooms ... even a prison. They get much the same response from audiences that I get at "Boocoo Dinky Dow" book readings. Veterans open up with their own stories, or sit quietly in the back and nod. Baby boomers from all walks of life come forward to share their own stories from the '60s and '70s. Younger folks are polite, curious. Veterans of more recent wars compare their experiences to those of their elders.

Veterans sometimes share their political views as well. As Ken notes, their perspective of politics, past and present, doesn't always match his. Nor mine. It doesn't matter. What matters is shared memories, mutual respect, and a story that is true.

Just how true? Ken and I talked about our struggles to confirm the details of battles when even the men who fought side-by-side disagree about what happened. When the public records are vague or incorrect. But he and Betty and I believe the stories we preserved are true in their essence and scope. We've honored the sacrifices of Grady and the other men in his Charlie Company, and those who suffered and died at Khe Sanh. All these years later, some of them still suffer -- as the emotional interviews in "Bravo!" attest.

The high-quality documentary is now available on DVD. It is deeply moving and sad. Watch it. Then, if you need a chuckle or two, you might want to pick up a copy of "Boocoo Dinky Dow."

0 Comments

    

    Julie Titone is co-author of the Grady Myers memoir "Boocoo Dinky Dow: My short, crazy Vietnam War." Grady was an M-60 machine gunner in The U.S. Army's Company C’s 2nd Platoon, 1st Battalion, 8th Regiment, 4th Infantry Division in late 1968 and early 1969. His Charlie Company comrades knew him as Hoss. Thoughts, comments? Send Julie an email.

    RSS Feed

    Archives

    November 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    November 2017
    May 2016
    November 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    July 2014
    May 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012

    Categories

    All
    1st Air Cavalry
    Against Football
    Ambush
    Apollo 8
    Art School
    Audiobook
    Barracks
    Betty Rodgers
    Bill Crist
    Bob Benzon
    Bob Robbins
    Boise
    Boocoo Dinky Dow
    Book Signings
    Boonie Hat
    Branson
    Bravo!
    Bush Hat
    Carroll McInroe
    Charlie Company
    Chicago
    Christmas 1968
    Creighton Abrams
    Dak To
    Dan Webster
    Dave Mueller
    Dennis Harris
    Depression
    Dispatches
    D'Wayne Hodgin
    Ed Bremer
    Ernest Hemingway
    Ford Thunderbird
    Fort Lewis
    FORWARD
    George Callan
    Grady Myers
    Grady Myers
    Guest Readers
    Hawk
    Helicopter
    Infantry
    Jane Cherney
    Jeffrey Fellin
    Jess Walter
    Joe Tschida
    John Titone
    Joint Base Lewis Mcchord
    Joint Base Lewis-McChord
    Joseph Heller
    Julie Titone
    Ken Rodgers
    Khe Sanh
    Krfp Radio
    Krfp Radio Interview
    KSER
    Letters
    Library
    Maree Mchugh
    Memorial Day
    Michael Herr
    Michael Simpson
    Microphone
    Morgan Sports Cars
    National Veterans Art Museum
    Native American
    Neill Public Library
    Oak Harbor
    Patrick Flanagan
    Paul Ridley
    Pilot
    Plei Trap
    Podcast
    Ray Heltsley
    Reunion
    Richard Nixon Quote
    Sherman Alexie
    SPAM
    Spokane Public Library
    Spokesman-Review
    Steve Almond
    Steve Orr
    Teddy Fisher
    Texas Tech
    Tim Woodward
    Tom Williams
    Veterans
    Veterans Day
    Victor Villanueva
    Vietnam Archive
    Vietnam Helicopter Crew Members Association
    Vietnam Veterans Memorial
    Walt Morrow
    Washington Dc
    Washington State University
    Willys Jeepster
    World War II
    Zack

    RSS Feed