Associated Press Reporting Handbook Chapter 23 Using the Internet

1. Associated Press Reporting HandbookChapter 23 Using the Internet Still Stuck in Vietnam, 25 Years Later By JERRY SCHWARTZ AP National Writer

2. This story is about retired professor Robert Blackburn in Missoula, Mont. • What was the malady Blackburn said caused him to suffer? • “Emotional Numbness” • What was the paradox • He could remember, but he couldn’t remember. • “I do not remember the name of any person I ever served with in Vietnam.” • He served two tours.

3. What was the anniversary that sparked Schwartz’s story. • 25 years since Saigon fell. • Was the specter of Vietnam buried “forever?” • It returns in shattered lives and our scars keep us second guessing our responses to provocations overseas. • Jimmy Carter’s pardon of draft evaders was a slap in the face to some veterans. • Jane Fonda’s actions not appreciated, either.

4. The Vietnam War will be a major force in in our lives until the entire baby boom generation dies out -- and even after, according to John Hellman, author of “American Myth and the Legacy of Vietnam.” • It’s like the Civil War. • Lou Szari’s experience was different from that of Blackburn. • Kent State student teacher. • Four students shot.

5. Liz Troshane saw it happen. • “Something died in me.” • Jay Hatcher found he was surrounded by a mob. • He never supported the war. • He became a hippie. • Quit school, dodged the draft, but still wound up going into the Coast Guard. • Hatcher remembers • Troshane remembers

6. Liz Troshane saw it happen. • “Something died in me.” • Jay Hatcher found he was surrounded by a mob. • He never supported the war. • He became a hippie. • Quit school, dodged the draft, but still wound up going into the Coast Guard. • Hatcher remembers • Troshane and Szari remember

7. “It’s the American hero we’re rescuing, the American hero who has been unaccountably trapped and cannot get out,” Hellman says. • Much like America itself. (American Myth and the Legacy of Vietnam.) • Mark Basinger lost his father in Vietnam. Basinger was only 17 months old. Capt. Basinger was 24 years old. • There were 58,178 American deaths in Vietnam. • 2,043 still missing when this was written.

8. 3,403,100 served in Southeast Asia. • Vietnam was weeks of tedium -- monsoon rains, smells, heat, long hikes through tall elephant grass with 75 pounds on your back, leeches everywhere … • “There are some things I have to keep to myself,” Blackburn says. • He wants to explain every casualty. • He has no illusions that his work will help him put Vietnam behind him. He will work to help those who can.

9. Jerry Schwartz was the editor of Penn State’s student newspaper when the Vietnam War ended. • This story was an anniversary piece. • He had lived the history. • “I didn’t want this story to be a parade.” • “I chose to rely on a reporter’s tool that did not exist when the last American choppers departed Saigon: The World Wide Web.” • This story was researched almost entirely on the Internet.

10. Blackburn’s Web site. • Searched for “Vietnam widow” • Discussion groups • Tripped over a site devoted to Kent State shootings. • Hatcher’s oral history was posted. • Names on the Kent State library site. • Tracked Hellman and bought his book online. • Statistics on Vietnam were online.

11. Richard Basinger’s name is on the Vietnam Memorial on the Virtal Wall on the Web. • Only Allen Comba, the New Jersey veteran and lawyer had no Web connection. • He was the lawyer who handled the closing on Schwartz’s house.