HOME MOVIES: 1966 VIETNAM WAR

Genre: home movie

Year Published: 1965

Format: 16mm

Description: This 8mm home movie was shot during the Vietnam War by Peter Orsino, who worked as a U.S. Army chef in Southeast Asia in 1965-66. He did not see combat, but worked primarily in rear areas during the conflict. This particular footage appears to have been shot in and around Saigon. It shows Saigon street scenes and a Shell gas station (:49), a young girl talks to American G.I.s (1:00), rickshaw or tuktuk in traffic (1:26), building under construction (1:41), sign for a party (1:46), with chef staff cooking chicken on open fire at tent barracks, (2:18) sign for the 91st Military Police (MP) Company party, April 9, 1966, sampling cooked food off the bbq grill (3:12), Saigon street scenes (4;04) including song birds in cages (4:24), fruit and vegetable, and meat market (5:40), cargo ship belches smoke on the dock (6:11), African American soldier or chef sits outside tent smoking cigarette and reading newspaper (6:50), Huey helicopter flies overhead (7;08), sandbagged mess tent and supper room sign for consolidated mess (7:42), Vietnamese graveyard (7:56) with huge smoke cloud in distance possibly from an attack or airplane crash (8:12), guard towers on the perimeter of a military base (8:32), large swimming pool, probably the Saigon swimming pool (9:57). Peter Orsino was born in Cornwall NY, joined the Army in 1958 where he began his lifelong career of being a cook/chef. He went from Fort Lee VA to Fort Dix NJ, to Vietnam where he spent a year (Aug 65-Aug 66) with the 557th MPCo as a cook. From there, he spent 2 years in Germany, then on to San Francisco CA. In 1970 he decided to leave the Army, but continued as a National Guardsman in Newburgh NY for over 20 years. After cooking in several restaurants in the 1970s, he became a chef at West Point in NY until he retired in 2000. Enjoyed his retirement years with his wife, kids, VFW buddies and his 7 grandchildren until his passing in 2016.

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