This screening is part of the “Light, Camera, History!” series, co-presented by the Sewickley Valley Historical Society and The Lindsay, which explores history through film.
There’s one Vietnam story still untold. Dak To. It was 1969 and American combat operations in Kontoum province were ostensibly over. But not for 600 men in the 299th Engineer Battalion. In a gambit ordered by President Nixon, this battalion of bridge and road builders were left at their strategic post along the Ho Chi Minh Trail to lure the North Vietnamese Army into battle. During a grueling 61-day siege, without their infantry to defend them, half of the men in the 299th were killed or wounded.
Christopher Upham survived the siege at Dak To. But 40 years later, he still wakes up with the weight of Vietnam. In an effort to finally come to terms with his 14-month tour of duty in Vietnam and the abandonment at Dak To, Upham reconnects with his unit. Five of them decide to return to Dak To. With the trust of a fellow soldier, and the voice of a true insider, Upham leads his comrades back to Dak To, along the way questioning what they were asked to do, and what they agreed to do, for their country.