Written in Smoke

A film Directed by Stephen R. Ham

When the three of us arrived in Vietnam, we were sent to an experimental unit called the, "Combat Intelligence Battalion".  It was the only such unit ever formed.

"Filmed as we lived it in Vietnam - 1969," by Steve Singer, Henry Almaraz and Stephen Ham, "and when we were not fighting, we were out and took pictures of each other.  All of us were Combat Intelligence Analysts, who had a unique point of view, working with Generals, Commanders, Priests, Viet Cong, NVA and hookers."

"Your collage of live footage, still photos, your art work, music and sounds of shooting and other sounds all make your production striking.  There is an obvious sense of reality to everything that is missing in so many documentaries that are made by the professionals.  For example;  you retained some comments of the men that probably would have been cut out - words that dangled or might not flow just right.  But this is very good!  For it creates a sense of reality - that this is the way things really were.  So, instead of getting interviews (like contemporary documentaries do)  which make us view something through the eyes of the persons being interviewed, where it becomes sort of a story from "long ago and far away," the viewer is instead drawn right into the reality of what is in front of him.  Documentaries on Vietnam (and other historic events as well) that I see now are basically shots of people (as they are now) talking, reminiscing, and their names are indicated at the bottom of the screen, and there is a sense of it all being "back then" as a story - there is a chronological distance that is established by the way it is portrayed.  Not so your production.  There is no "now" that is portrayed; it is all "then."  It is perhaps this drawing in that created the on-going imaginative creation in my mind when it stopped:  I was so stuck inside what I was seeing, that when it ended, I was still there!

Rev. Ray W. Stubbe - Chaplin at the Battle of Khe Sawh

This entire group of maps deals with the "visual interpretation unit."  Sometimes, you can't see something even though it's right in front of you.  Example:  you are looking for the salt shaker on an overflowing countertop and you can't see it.  Suddenly, there it is right in front of your face, six inches away!

I had the same experience with tanks.  "Image Interpretation: said they were small houses...the camouflage was very good...but I could see a few tubes sticking out of the boxes.  Tanks!  That night, when I flew out to fire base Baston, I flew over those tanks at 2 a.m. I could see them with my starlight scope.  ...enough...I'm rambling

Stephen Ham, Vietnam 1968-69

U.S. Army Combat Intelligence