Soul Patrol Loving Tribute to Soldiers and Friends

SSgt. Kirk Willams was my father and he served this country proudly all the way up to his last breath on this planet.  Yet, my father never discussed his time in the Corps.  Never talked about why he enlisted, what it was like when he returned home, what Agent Orange was or the PTSD he experienced resulting in a personality change turning him into someone family members and friends could barely recognize. Many men left a part of themselves in the jungle

Soul Patrol takes audiences from deep behind enemy lines, a hidden, yet uncovered chapter of American military history, to  prompting the question of whether reckoning with the past can bring peace to those who lived it. The Vietnam War’s first Black special operations team reunites to tell their story.

As a teenager, Ed Emanuel proudly joined the military and marveled at the world from his first ever plane to Vietnam. When the flight captain announced Bobby Kennedy’s assassination, a dreadful new reality struck Emanuel, the fight for the civil rights of his own people was sparking to a new level. So, what the hell was he doing in Saigon?

Based on his Emanuel’s book of the same name Soul Patrol is an immersive journey through the identity crisis of what it meant to be a “soul brother” fighting in Vietnam. Learning how and why these men enlisted was fascinating. One member literally was picking cotton for $.30  an hour for a ten hour shift before signing up.  More importantly, these brothers got over to Vietnam only to discover white soldiers deployed despised them even more than the civilians at home – quickly came to realize the real war they left was at home.

One of the most heart stopping moments was the recollection reenactment of waiting in the jungle brush surviving an intense anticipation of the enemy, while placing the audience in the midst of this harrowing tale.

Director J.M. Harper crafts precious archival footage, reenactments, and testimonies to awaken a history that has disappeared behind narratives of imperial legacy and military stoicism.

Soul Patrol is a radiant journey through shame and isolation, as Emanuel reunites his team, attempting to heal their common trauma. This documentary, in the wake of my father’s death, helped me understand my father and how he could be laughing one minute and completely filled with rage the next.  Being a Vietnam vet, he was faced with a battle – a battle that had permanently infiltrated his mind.  He couldn’t afford to be weak and Daddy may have survived the war, but lost the ultimate peace of mind.

You have to know your beginning before you can figure out your ending.  My father was my beginning.  My end has yet to be discovered.