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Journalism alums display Vietnam War photosBy Lori Runkle Denny Eilers and Jim Stephens both graduated from Iowa State with journalism degrees in 1963. And they both served in the Vietnam War—Eilers as an information officer and Stephens as a swift boat commander. Their photographs from the Vietnam War will be on display in Hamilton Hall in conjunction with journalist Kate Webb’s March visit. And they are available as part of a Greenlee School digital exhibit: Eilers said his training as an Iowa State Daily editor helped prepare him for work as an information officer for the 198th Infantry Brigade during the Vietnam War. Eilers held the rank of captain in the U.S. Army where he spent a tour of duty in Vietnam from 1967-1968. "I requested an assignment as a combat journalist from the Army,” he said, “and because of my training and experience, that’s the assignment I got.” In the spring of 1967, before Eilers left for Vietnam, the Army sent him to Defense Information School at Fort Benjamin Harrison in Indianapolis. Eilers learned about print, broadcast and television reporting, and military policy regarding media coverage. In September 1967, Eilers arrived in Vietnam. The Army stationed him in the area of Da Nang, a port city on the South China Sea, with 4,000 other soldiers in the 198th Brigade. "A brigade is a self-contained fighting unit,” Eilers explained, “and my job was similar to the managing editor of a small-town news outlet.” In Vietnam, Eilers was responsible for scheduling media activities and setting the editorial agenda for the 198th Brigade. One important part of his job was to assist and escort journalists from major news networks. "The national media had their own ideas on the stories that they wanted to do,” he said. “We helped them get helicopters and get around, but some went their own way. In Vietnam, we escorted journalists. In Iraq, the military embedded them.” "Ernie Zaugg, a reporter for The Des Moines Register, came through two or three times. He would do stories on soldiers from Iowa.” Another part of Eilers’ job was supervising a staff of six military journalists who reported on the daily activities of the 198th Brigade. He was responsible for releasing photographs and stories about this brigade to the civilian and military press. Stars and Stripes, The Army Times, The Army Reporter, and Life in Vietnam are military publications where Eilers’ articles and photographs often appeared. Eilers stressed the importance of army information officers in documenting the day-to-day activities of military life for the historical record. "Civilian journalists have a herd instinct,” he said. “When they all cover a big story, that means all the other stories aren’t covered. Mainstream journalists in Vietnam and Iraq are not interested in covering the activities of a regular unit, unless that unit is fighting a big battle.” Eilers was involved in starting a program called Operation Hometown while he was an information officer for the Army. The program provided news stories about soldiers to their hometown newspapers. "Our military correspondents got the names of soldiers’ hometowns and sent articles about those soldiers to the editors of the local papers,” he explained. “Many of the soldiers’ parents appreciated this.” "I volunteered for (Vietnam) because I wanted to go,” he said. “I didn’t want 40 or 50 years to go by and not have been there.” Eilers served in the U.S. Army from 1963 to 1968. After the Army, Eilers worked as a magazine photographer and feature writer for Webb Publishing in St. Paul, Minn.; a senior copywriter at a Philadelphia advertising agency, and vice president for Fletcher/Mayo/Associates in Atlanta, an agricultural advertising agency. In l987, Eilers became a freelance journalist, which he says he loves because, “It allows me to do both photography and writing -- the two things I like to work on the most.” He has since returned to the family farm in Luana, Iowa, where he produces photography and writing for the publishing and advertising industries.
Last updated: March 9, 2005 |
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