FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 


HISTORY® JOINS FORCES WITH THE VIETNAM VETERANS MEMORIAL FUND TO SUPPORT NATIONAL CALL FOR PHOTOS

PARTNERSHIP LAUNCHES TUESDAY OCTOBER 11TH DURING CEREMONY ON MILITARY ISLAND, NYC’S TIME SQUARE

Ties to Upcoming Special, Vietnam in HD, premiering this November

New York, NY, October 10, 2011 – HISTORY will partner with the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund (VVMF) in a nationwide Call for Photos effort supporting the Education Center at The Wall, a place on our National Mall which will ensure that our military heroes' stories and sacrifice will never be forgotten. The partnership ties to the upcoming six hour special, Vietnam in HD, which will premiere on the network Tuesday-Thursday, November 8, 9 and 10 at 9pm ET/PT.

HISTORY and VVMF will kick off this combined campaign with a ceremony in New York City at Military Island in Time Square, on Tuesday, October 11th (10:30 AM). During the ceremony, New Yorkers will be asked to participate in this national initiative to gather photographs and stories of the 58,272 men and women listed on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Special guests for the event include Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly, Fire Commissioner Salvatore Cassano and Medal of Honor recipient Paul Bucha.

Ceremonies will also take place in Philadelphia on Thursday October 13th featuring Mayor Michael Nutter and Pennsylvania Chief Justice Ronald Castille; in Atlanta on October 25th featuring Senator Johnny Isakson and General Barry McCaffrey and in Chicago on November 3rd, and will culminate at the national ceremony slated for Veterans Day at the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, D.C.

In New York, Philadelphia and Atlanta the effort will include a presentation of VVMF’s traveling half-scale replica of the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, D.C., called The Wall That Heals. Friends and families have been invited to bring photos of their loved ones whose names are memorialized on The Wall so they may be scanned onsite and eventually featured in a permanent exhibit at the Education Center at The Wall. To date over 35,000 photos are still needed to complete this exhibit.

In each market, HISTORY is also working with their partners and local constituents to locate Vietnam veterans and their family members who have not yet visited the Memorial in D.C. to invite them to a special ceremony which takes place at the Memorial this upcoming Veterans Day.

HISTORY President and General Manager Nancy Dubuc explained, “HISTORY has a long standing commitment to veterans and members of the military through initiatives such as "Take A Veteran to School" and "Thank a Veteran at Work," which recognize those who have sacrificed so much for our country. We are enormously proud of this initiative and truly hope our joint effort with VVMF will succeed in securing a photo for every soldier who fell during the Vietnam War.”

Jan C. Scruggs, founder and president of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund (VVMF) stated, “Together, HISTORY and VVMF are reaching out to states, counties and communities for help honoring those who fell in Vietnam, those who fought and returned, as well as the friends and families of all who served.”

In an additional effort to help VVMF to identify, scan and install photos in Washington HISTORY is issuing a call to action through its own programming, web site, print publications and through the help of over 500 Barnes and Noble stores across America which will showcase an in-store video explaining the campaign.

This sustained effort to find, scan and display photos of our fallen Vietnam heroes comes at a time when HISTORY is set to premiere Vietnam in HD, an epic six-hour television event, on November 8th, 9th and 10th. The special will immerse viewers in the sights, the sounds and stories of the Vietnam War in a way that has not been done before.  The series features rare and never-seen film, much of it shot by soldiers in action. Thousands of hours of uncensored footage, detailing every critical chapter of the Vietnam War, were located, restored and then transferred to High Definition. The dynamic footage combined with powerful storytelling from 13 gripping first person accounts will provide the viewer with a powerful perspective on this conflict.

The veterans’ poignant stories are voiced and delivered with emotional impact by some of Hollywood’s top actors including Adrian Grenier as Barry Romo, Edward Burns as Joe Galloway, Kevin Connolly as Keith Connolly, Blair Underwood as Charles Brown, Tempestt Bledsoe as Elizabeth Allen, Jerry Ferrara as Raymond Torres, Zachary Levi as Karl Marlantes, James Marsden as Arthur Wiknik, Jennifer Love Hewitt as Anne Purcell, Glenn Howerton as Donald DeVore, Armie Hammer as Gary Benedetti, Dylan McDermott as Jim Anderson and Dean Cain as Bob Clewall.

About the VVMF Education Center at The Wall

The Education Center at The Wall is a place on our National Mall where our military heroes' stories and sacrifice will never be forgotten. Like the Wall, The Center will be funded entirely from private donations. It will be a state-of-the-art visitors and learning center featuring the faces and stories of the 58,272 men and women from across America whose names are etched on the Wall. The Center will honor and tell the stories of those who fell in Vietnam, those who fought and returned, as well as all brave patriots who have served in the military from the Battle of Bunker Hill to the current wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The Center will be located nearby both the Lincoln Memorials and the Vietnam Wall. With a planned groundbreaking in November 2012, construction will commence once all funds are raised. Support the Education Center at The Wall by visiting www.buildthecenter.org, calling 866-990-WALL, or by texting "WALL" to 2022.

About HISTORY®

HISTORY® and HISTORY® HD are the leading destinations for revealing, award-winning original non-fiction series and event specials that connect history with viewers in an informative, immersive and entertaining manner across multiple platforms. Programming covers a diverse variety of historical genres ranging from military history to contemporary history, technology to natural history, as well as science, archaeology and pop culture. Among the network's program offerings are hit series such as American Pickers, Ax Men, American Restoration, Ice Road Truckers, Top Gear, Pawn Stars and Top Shot, as well as acclaimed specials including Gettysburg, America the Story of Us, WWII in HD, 102 Minutes That Changed America and Life After People. HISTORY has earned four Peabody Awards, 11 Primetime Emmy® Awards, 12 News & Documentary Emmy® Awards and received the prestigious Governor's Award from the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences for the network's Save Our History® campaign dedicated to historic preservation and history education. Take a Veteran to School Day is the network's signature initiative connecting America's schools and communities with veterans from all wars. The HISTORY website, located at www.history.com, is the leading online resource for all things history, featuring over 20,000 videos, images, audio clips, articles and interactive features that allow visitors to dig deeper into a broad range of thousands of historical topics. For more information go to www.historypressroom.com.

HISTORY PRESS CONTACT:

Vicky Kahn: 212-210-9743/ vicky.kahn@aetn.com

VVMF PRESS CONTACT:

Lee Allen: 202-393-0090, ext. 109 / lallen@vvmf.org

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    The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund takes our stewardship of your donations seriously. The programs we fund are designed to help us achieve our mission of preserving the legacy of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, promoting healing and educating about the impact of the Vietnam War.