Khe Sanh: A Walk in the Clouds (2003)

In 1987, I asked my high school English teacher a question, "Given the opportunity, would you travel back to Vietnam?" His response, "Only if I could stand on Hill 861 again at Khe Sanh." Thirteen years later, the answer to that question became reality when I traveled halfway around the world to stand on that hill with him. Khe Sanh: A Walk in the Clouds is the story of that return. It's been nearly thirty-two years since Dennis Mannion returned to the "WORLD." And for thirty-two years he's been yearning to go back to the place where he lost his youth. "They told us we had ten minutes to pack our stuff and we were gone. And I've been trying to find that place, find that hillside ever since." It was a place filled with fear, uncertainty, and death. And it's a chapter in his life that's been left open, until now. In July 2000, I traveled to Vietnam with Dennis, documenting his every step. The journey begins in a small town in Connecticut and brings us halfway around the world to a remote mountaintop in central Vietnam. Upon Dennis' arrival at Khe Sanh, he's struck by the solitude, "There's no more war here. This is a place, this is a life, these are people eking out a living as best they can in a place that for us was a war." A five-mile hike into the jungle culminates atop a mountain the Marines named Hill 861, 861 meters above sea level. It was here that Dennis Mannion bore witness to the carnage of war. And it was here that he would find solace to a chapter in his life that's been left open for more than thirty-two years. "I don't fight the battles anymore. But I haven't forgotten them. Unforgettable, really."