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Photos courtesy of Keith Famie and Visionalist Entertainment Inc.

Randy McConnell, who has been awarded more Purple Hearts than any living veteran, studies the“The Wall That Heals,” as filmmaker Keith Famie films him.

Welcome home

During the gala evening, vetsranging from Operation IraqiFreedom-Operation EnduringFreedom to World War II, andROTC students wished the Viet-nam vets a “welcome home.”

Over the past two years, Famieinterviewed dozens of Vietnamvets and people who had non-military roles in the war, and his

of veterans wore the colors and“uniforms” of many veteransservice organizations and pa-triotic motorcycle organiza-tions.

Veterans of the U.S. Air Force,Army, Coast Guard, Navy, Ma-rines, National Guard and Re-serves stood when the 126thArmy Band of the Michigan Na-tional Guard played the anthemof each branch.

By Linda MaySpecial to The Macomb Daily

Perhaps as many as 3,500people attended the premiere ofproducer Keith Famie’s new doc-umentary, “Our Vietnam Gener-ation,” at the Fox Theatre in De-troit Friday night.

Uniformed men and womencurrently in the military repre-sented many ranks. Thousands

Keith Famie’s documentary on Vietnam vetsstrikes a chord with men, women who lived it

See FILM, Page 7A

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City struggleswith charteramendmentsDrawing new ward system districtsleaves Warren city attorney with‘conundrum’; court unlikely to step into sort it outBy Norb FranzMacomb Daily Staff Writer

Freshly removed from the Macomb County Circuit Courtbench, new Warren City Attorney James Biernat says thecourt probably wouldn’t decide who should draw new elec-tion districts in the city.

The ex-judge was directed recently by the City Council tofile action in circuit court for an advisory opinion onwhether the council or the new Redistricting Commissionhas the duty to set five wards for council elections.

The order stems from the uncertainty of how two voter-approved ballot proposals spearheaded by the Warren TeaParty last autumn should be implemented. The measures,which amend the Warren City Charter, called for the coun-cil to be trimmed from nine members to seven, and for fiveto be elected by residents within individual districts andtwo to be chosen at-large.

Pointing to an attorney general opinion and state law,several council members believe the power to draw districtlines rests with them. However, some say the charter is thelaw of the land, and the new boundary board alone has thattask.

Biernat, appointed to the top legal post in City Hall thismonth, said the court won’t take up the request for a “de-claratory action” because there’s no adversarial party tothe litigation, and because nobody has challenged the chart-er.

“Courts just don’t accept issues from local legislativebodies and tell them how to run their business. They are notsuper-legislators,” Biernat said.

Further complicating the matter is Biernat’s role. He said

See DISTRICTS, Page 5A

See COURT, Page 5A

Judge proposesProbate Courtmove to downtownSays move could save money,improve operationsBy Jameson CookMacomb Daily Staff Writer

Macomb County’s chief judge has proposed moving theProbate Court from its current location on the outskirts ofMount Clemens to county buildings downtown to savemoney and improve efficiencies.

Judge Mark Switalski told The Macomb Daily Fridaythat he soon will formally suggest to County ExecutiveMark Hackel and the county Board of Commissioners totransfer the court from the corner of North Rose and Dun-ham roads to downtown, likely the county courthouse oradjacent county building.

“It would provide substantial savings to the county and atthe same time improve services,” Switalski said.

The proposal comes as part of the county’s continuing ef-forts to reduce costs through consolidation. Switalski saidhe could not estimate the savings, but believes they wouldcome not only from closing a building but possibly puttingit to another use. It also would improve interaction of thestaff and the ability for circuit judges and probate judges tosubstitute for each other, he said.

Probate Judge Kathryn Judge is among those in support.“The need is greater for consolidation of services

wherever we can because of the budgetary crisis we are fac-ing, and there’s no end in sight,” she said.

The move would be welcomed by many people who workand patronize the court because of limited space and an in-

streets with knives and sticks,stealing what they could and de-

Residents and shopkeepers inaffluent neighborhoods boardedup their houses and storesagainst looters, who roamed the

By Hamza HendawiAssociated Press

CAIRO — With protests rag-ing, Egypt’s president named hisintelligence chief as his first-ever vice president on Saturday,setting the stage for a successoras chaos engulfed the capital.Soldiers stood by — a few evenjoining the demonstrators — andthe death toll from five days ofanti-government fury rosesharply to 74.

Saturday’s fast-moving devel-opments across the north Afri-can nation marked a sharp turn-ing point in President Hosni Mu-barak’s three-decade rule ofEgypt.

Cairo nearanarchyMubarak pointsto succession

AP photo

Protesters throw firebombs at riot police after police shot at pro-testers accompanying the funeral procession of an anti-govern-ment protester killed Friday in a street near Tahrir square inCairo, Egypt, Saturday.

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“Nobody wanted to touch thePOW or the Agent Orange issuesso we had to bring them topeople’s attention ourselves,”Spooner said. “I remember whenwe started (VVA) Chapter 9. Wehad so many guys in their 30sdying of these weird cancers.They were healthy in their 20sand passing away a decade later.We had close to 2,000 membersback then. It seemed like some-one was passing away once amonth from our chapter alone.”

Long time coming

“I can’t imagine how the filmeditor can take more than a hun-dred hours of film and break itdown to look like that,” said PatDaniels, who was one of the on-stage speakers and presenters.

“God bless Keith Famie and (co-executive producer) Bob Gillette.They said the premiere was goingto be a long night, but it was a longtime coming. I thought the moviewas a wonderful perspective onwhat the Vietnam vet is doingnow and all about the good thingshappening.

“My son was there and he waswaiting for me at the backstagedoor after the candlelight cere-mony and gave me a big hug andtold me something he’d neversaid before. He said thank you. Ithink that he now has a betterunderstanding of what makeshis father tick.”

Following the premiere, Dan-iels and his crew moved the trav-eling memorial from the Fox tothe Detroit Historical Museum,where it will be until Feb. 13.

“There are a lot of Detroitnames on that memorial. Maybewe will get more pictures for thebiographical books because weare setting it up in the city,” hesaid.

“A young lady in her Navyuniform wanted to introduce herdad to me. He was also a Navyveteran. He’s one of those guyswho didn’t get out and do veter-ans stuff. I gave him a hug andwelcomed him home. And wepassed out several of our medalsof appreciation to Iraq and Af-ghanistan vets.

“I hope that all of our Vietnambrothers and sisters got a littlehealing and walked out of theFox with a little more pride intheir step,” Daniels said.

really happy little geeks to seewhat the kids in America did forthem. A young lady who made a‘never give up’ drawing summedit up by saying that peoplearound the world are prettymuch alike. I think that was in-sightful on her part,” he said.

“The event at the Fox was aclassy event, like a homecomingto a certain extent. All thesepeople showed up, vets and theirsupporters, family and friends;everybody appeared to be veryfriendly and together I thought itwas quite impressive. That filmwas educational; that’s my over-all impression.

“I felt the theme was that Viet-nam vets like each other andthey’ve always got a brother orsister in each other. When I seeanother Marine, that’s a given. Ifelt the same connectiveness lastnight,” he said the day after thepremiere. “Whatever negativeor positive experiences we haveties everyone together.

“It was different in World WarII. They had a lot of support. Thewhole country was behind them.We didn’t have that yet we madethose extraordinary contribu-tions to each other to promotethe healing process. We did that.No one did that for us.”

Mike Bowen goes by the mo-niker “Flagman.” He does hisrunning while carrying thePOW/MIA flag symbolizing thestill more than 1,700 unaccount-ed-for Americans in SoutheastAsia.

“Flagman is incredible. He hasrun all these miles, turned hispersonal life around. He talkedabout that in the film. Then, takeVietnam Veterans of AmericaChapter 154’s traveling wall.That’s an extraordinary piece ofwork,” Spooner said.

Pat Daniels, of Eastpointe, wasrecorded telling the story of theMichigan Vietnam Traveling Me-morial in the documentary andhow his crew takes it around thestate. It bears the names of the2,654 Michigan casualties of Viet-nam, accompanied by biographi-cal books for each person on thememorial. The monument wasdisplayed at the premiere.

The film touched on the sub-ject of Agent Orange and themedical problems it has causedto Vietnam veterans.

film when he took a trip back toVietnam and visited “Hill 41”where a particularly brutal bat-tle took place for him and his fel-low Marines.

“The country of Vietnam is abeautiful place having traveledtheir twice now in 1997 and thislast year. The war that took placethere has turned a country’sname into a negative feeling,”Famie said. “It’s silly how littlepeople know about Agent Or-ange — and napalm — it’s sooften confused. I got the AgentOrange thing down now.”

“It was something that had tobe said,” Spooner said of the doc-umentary. “Famie told every-one’s story — the neighbor downthe block, the guy or woman nextdoor. There had been such a neg-ative image of the Vietnam vet ingeneral. It highlighted who cameback and did well. It rambled abit, but always came back to thepoint that Vietnam vets areproud of their service.

Spooner took well wishes frompatients at Children’s Hospital ofMichigan to patients in a chil-dren’s hospital in Vietnam andbrought back drawings from theVietnamese children to theAmerican children.

“The children over there were

until somebody new who wasshot down told us about them.That really helped us. The Viet-namese didn’t place value onhuman life as we do. Theycouldn’t believe Americans wereworrying about three or 400people that way. It made them re-alize they had something theU.S. wanted back and it helpedchange the treatment we got. Itwent from brutal to rather sus-tainable.”

The awareness the braceletshelped create changed that treat-ment by 1971 or 1972.

“It made them go ‘we got some-thing we can barter with.’ Upuntil then they didn’t care if welived or died. They needed us forleverage,” he said.

“I thought it was appropriateto leave the comments in thereby vets who talked about comingback and being spat upon andthat it wasn’t a military-run war.The politicians controlled it, notmilitary tactics or strategists. Ithink that was important to say,because of how it affected theoutcome,” Odell said.

Revisiting Vietnam

Mark Spooner, of HarrisonTownship, was featured in the

didn’t. I’m luckier than a lot ofthem and I have a lot to be thank-ful for.

“I thought the film was verywell done, a little long and drawnout toward the end maybe, butthen I’m not a producer-direc-tor,” Odell said after attendingthe film premiere. “I thoughtwhat they showed in the finalversion about myself wasenough; there was no need toelongate my experience morethan they did in there. They cov-ered how I was shot down andthe initial interrogation and allthat.”

Odell is married to his secondwife, Susie, and they have a sonwho is 10 years old. They live inHarrison Township.

“Now I’m retired and I staybusy I can’t just sit still,” Odellsaid.

One of his winter activities issnowmobiling around the stateraising money for Special Olym-pics with Wertz Warriors. Hesaid the group has raised $8.5million in the past 29 years.

Odell has received about 800 ofthe POW/MIA bracelets thatbear his name from people whovowed to wear them until he wasrepatriated.

“We didn’t know about them

were at least eight days of inter-rogation. My captor, he was likea medic, had to feed me because Icould not feed myself. It was de-grading to them. They didn’t likehaving to feed me. I’m theenemy.”

‘Camp America’

“They took us to a dungeoncamp on the outskirts of Hanoicalled “the zoo.” We laterchanged it to ‘Camp America.’ Iwas with two or three other pris-oners in that cell. If it had notbeen for them, I probably wouldnot have made it. Talk about fate.The weird thing was that I waswith Bob Barnett who was aphysical therapist. He workedwith me and had me walking insix months. He would not leaveme alone. I almost hated him. I’dsay give me a rest and he’d sayno way. He’d be working myarms and legs. I’m still in touchwith him. I see him at reunionsand we talk occasionally.”

After he got home, in one wayhe was no different from anyother veteran. Even as a well-known POW, Odell had the samehassles with getting veteransdisability compensation. He hadto persevere through the legalsystem for that ordeal, on top ofwhat he went through in Viet-nam.

He wore a neck brace forawhile. Today, at age 76, he hascervical spondylosis, which isabnormal wear on the bones inhis neck, and calcium deposits.There is surgery available thatmay make it better, but also maymake it worse, so Odell has notopted for surgery.

After he retired from the AirForce, he worked at various jobs,including public affairs at Sel-fridge ANG base.

“I am very happy with my life.If I died today I would have no re-grets. I’ve done everything in mylife that I’ve wanted to do. Iwouldn’t want anybody cryingfor me at a wake. I’d want themto drink cocktails and have agood time. If I had to live lifeover, I would be a fighter pilotagain. There’s nothing else Iwould be. Some made it. Some

FILM:Continued from Page 7A

Photos courtesy of Keith Famie and Visionalist Entertainment Inc.

Keith Famie films Vietnam veteran Woody Horne for his documentary, “Our Vietnam Generation.”

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