Watch Return to Vietnam

"Return to Vietnam" chronicles the 10th anniversary trip of 15 U.S. and Canadian G I's and their families back to China Beach, Vietnam, where the soldiers spend two weeks doing manual labor to build a rural health clinic, and also set up free clinics to provide health care to indigent Vietnamese. The trip is organized by the humanitarian organization "Vets with a Mission" that first started such "reconciliation" trips in 1989 and has built over 20 rural health clinics throughout Vietnam. Many G I's are repeat returnees. Roger Helle had his body blown apart in the early 1970's and was air-lifted out of Vietnam. This is his 12th trip back. Bill Isetts was a riverboatman who returns year after year as a performing clown. Chuck Ward experienced the rejection of his homecoming back to the U.S. in 1972 when anti-war protesters dumped feces and urine on he and his fellow midshipmen as they sailed under the Golden Bay bridge in San Francisco harbor. Jim Sufka, as an infantryman fought in Vietnamese "free fire zones" -- areas of the country where no orders were required to shoot at suspected targets. Now, he is a team leader, who tries to provide perspective to newer returning vets. The vets work with Vietnamese masons and tradespeople to build the Hoa Hai health clinic on the outskirts of Da Nang, a few miles from China Beach, where U.S. Marines came ashore in 1965 to start the American involvement in the Vietnam War. The Vets also explore nearby battlefields that bring back memories of fire-fights and long lost friends. Ray Oglesby, a five time returnee explores the royal city of Hue, where retreating North Vietnamese troops massacred over 10,000 civilians. Today, it's still hard for him to accept the communist flag of Vietnam that flies over the citadel. Yet, he returns to organize free clinics that his wife, Dr. Aletha Oglesby conducts with fellow volunteer nurse, Betty Baldwin for indigent vietnamese. The vets

Return to Vietnam is a 2008 documentary with a runtime of 1 hour.