Dr. Sharon Raynor will share Vietnam War veterans’ memories of sacrifice, pride, disappointment, honor and recovery in her presentation “Breaking the Silence and Healing the Soul: The Oral Histories of Vietnam War Veterans of North Carolina.” The Museum of the Cape Fear Historical Complex will host Raynor, a N.C. Humanities Council Road Scholar, on Sunday, Nov. 15, at 2 p.m. Admission is free.
Raynor’s interest in Vietnam veterans stems from her father’s war experiences, depicted in photographs and journal entries during his tour of duty. She has collected oral histories from veterans who were previously silenced by their memories of war.
This program focuses on the stories of those veterans, once bound by a strict code of unbreakable silence, who have formed a brotherhood to heal their wounded souls. Raynor will discuss the process she used to gain their trust in order to record their wartime experiences. Several Vietnam veterans will accompany Raynor to share their stories and answer questions.
The program is the final event supporting A Thousand Words: Photographs by Vietnam Veterans, an exhibit created and curated by Martin Tucker of Winston-Salem. Her appearance is made possible by a grant from the N.C. Humanities Council, a statewide nonprofit and affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
For more information, call the Museum of the Cape Fear at 910/486-1330.
For more information about the museum, call 910-486-1330 or access www.museumofthecapefear.ncdcr.gov. The Museum of the Cape Fear Historical Complex, located on the corner of Bradford and Arsenal avenues in Fayetteville, is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. The museum is part of the Division of State History Museums, Office of Archives and History, an agency of the N.C. Department of Cultural Resources, www.ncculture.com.