Gary Sinise is known worldwide for portraying Vietnam veteran Lieutenant Dan in the 1994 film, “Forrest Gump.” Though Sinise hasn’t served in the military himself, he feels compelled to give veterans a platform to share their stories.
“Where We Once Stood” is a new documentary featuring real-life Vietnam veterans returning to the country five decades later. Sinise narrates the film and can’t wait for the public to see it.
Gary Sinise Wants to Help Vietnam Vets Tell Their Stories
Actor Gary Sinise felt incredibly honored to participate in “Where We Once Stood.”
“It’s really something very special,” the actor recently told PEOPLE. “I think very, very positive that Veterans United was able to provide this trip for them…. To go back to walk on the ground at a place where they were young men who lost friends, had difficult things happen to them.”
Sinise described a scene where a former prisoner of war returned to the place where he was imprisoned and tortured. Today, it’s a museum. However, the actor wants to highlight how “tremendously impactful” it was to see the American soldiers return to the site and process their feelings.
“When you watch ‘Where We Once Stood’ and you see these 10 veterans sharing their stories, some of them have not really talked too much about it,” Sinise continued. “They’re sharing their story. It’s a very healing thing.”
Many Vietnam veterans have struggled with the emotional trauma for decades without anyone to speak with.
“We don’t want them to self-combust by keeping this pain and this anger or despair or whatever they might be dealing with,” the “Forrest Gump” star added. “We don’t want them to contain that. It’s better to share it and get those stories out. That’s very important.”
The Veterans Often Struggle to Process Their Trauma
The documentary allows Vietnam service members to tell their stories in their own words. Even decades later, many still struggle with the horrors they saw in battle.
“I didn’t talk to anybody about the good or the bad,” Rich Coachys, one of the veterans featured in the documentary, admitted to PEOPLE. One of his fellow soldiers was killed next to him, while Coachys sustained bullet wounds to the leg and stomach.
“We kind of put to the side that we didn’t want to remember, and so some of this stuff is starting to come back now,” another veteran, Jerry Miller, added.
Veterans United’s vice president of military relations and business development, Pam Swan, was one of the officials heavily involved in the project. While speaking to PEOPLE, she highlighted how much the veterans deserved to feel safe and have their stories told.
“Vietnam veterans have always deserved this time, and to kind of right the wrong,” Swan told the outlet. “We needed to do this before the voices were gone.”
Inside Gary Sinise’s Project to Give Vietnam Veterans a Voice