Paul Reed Born in 1948 in Dallas, Texas, Paul joined the U.S. army in 1966 and was trained as an infantry paratrooper. He was honorably discharged in 1969, having attained the rank of sergeant. After returning from Vietnam, Paul drove a truck for sixteen years until 1987, when he became aware that he was suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. In 1996, Paul co-wrote a book with Ted Schwartz, Kontum Diary: Captured Writings Bring Peace to a Vietnam Veteran, published by Summit Publishing Group, with a foreword by General William C. Westmoreland and a prologue by Captain Gerald L. Coffee. Paul's story is currently being adapted into a theatrical screenplay. Nguyen Van Nghia (First name, Nghia; last name, Nguyen, pronounced "win") In 1948 Nghia joined the Viet Minh and battled the French for eight years. In 1965 he was drafted back into the military and commissioned as a second lieutenant. The 1968 battle near Kontum was Nghia's last engagement as a North Vietnamese soldier. Wounded in both eyes, he was taken to a field hospital and then released from the army. Half-blind, he walked 500 miles up the Ho Chi Minh trail back to his home. The journey took two years, and he caught malaria twice. Born in 1928, Nghia lives in the village of Tien Hai with his wife Vu Thi Gai. They have four children and are acting parents to one grandchild. Stevan M. Smith (Producer, Writer, Director) A Vietnam veteran who served for two years in the U.S. Marine Corps, Smith studied communications at Oregon State University and worked for over 18 years in television news as a cameraman, assignment editor, special projects producer, and managing editor in Seattle. In 1989, Smith established his own production company, Echo Productions. His documentary Two Decades and a Wakeup, the story of a Post Traumatic Stress treatment group that returns to Vietnam to face its members' demons, won an Iris Award, a CPB Local Programming Award, and was nominated for a national Emmy. Phil Sturholm (Co-Producer, Photographer, Co-Editor) A 35 year veteran of television production, Sturholm has won 32 regional Emmy Awards, a Peabody, and a duPont Award for his news photography and filmmaking. He graduated from Oregon State University and began working in television news at KING-TV in Seattle. He teaches broadcast writing and production at Seattle University. Peter Coyote (Narrator) Actor, political activist, writer and narrator Peter Coyote has been in over 55 films made for television and the big screen. His involvement in both politics and acting began in high school. His interests meshed when, in 1964, he joined the San Francisco Mime Troupe, a radical political street theater, as an actor, writer and director. Coyote continued to mix activism with acting throughout the 60s. Many of the stories of that period are included in his book Sleeping Where I Fall. As an actor, he has worked with notable film directors from around the world including Roman Polanski (Bitter Moon) and Pedro Almodovar (Kika). He has recently completed work on Random Hearts, directed by Sidney Pollack.

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