Still Here: Vietnam War Stories from Illinois weaves together first-hand accounts of combat veterans, war resisters and refugees to reveal the harsh realities of war as well as journeys of survival and recovery. 2018 Regional Edward R. Murrow Award - News Documentary.
Terry Hairrell of Waukegan, Illinois served in the Army from 1967 – 1969. While on combat missions in Vietnam, he was awarded a Purple Heart. His war experiences scarred him deeply; but with help of a loving wife, he has recovered to make meaning of his experiences with those he served.
Ut Ha grew up in Da Lat Vietnam, one of eight children, in the 1960s and 1970s. She survived multiple acts of war, invasion and displacement. In 1990, she moved to the United States with her husband, Bon Bui, a former prisoner of war.
Bon Bui was born in Quảng Bình, Vietnam in 1946 and fled to the South during the war. He became a South Vietnamese Marine during the war and was trained by US forces in the United States. After Saigon fell in 1975, he become a prisoner of war for 10 years before finally relocating to America under an asylum program. Bui recounts the atrocities of war first hand.
