(upbeat music) - We are honored to be joined by Amy Osborn, Chief Executive Officer of the New Jersey Vietnam Veterans Memorial and Museum.

Amy, great to have you back.

- Thank you for having me, Steve.

It's good to be back.

- Well, it's been a little over a year that we had you, so update us.

As the website goes up for the museum and memorial, tell us what it is, and why people should know more about it, please.

- Well, the New Jersey Vietnam Veterans Memorial and Museum is the only one of its kind in the country, and I think that's a really important thing to know.

And this year, we're celebrating our 30th anniversary of the dedication of the memorial, which was of course dedicated by Governor Christie Whitman, along with General Schwarzkopf and Governor Whitman's late husband, John Whitman, who raised the money for it.

So this is our 30th anniversary coming up on Monday, and it's gonna be a big celebration and a full circle moment.

We've got Governor Whitman as our keynote speaker, and we also have former Senator Ed O'Connor, who was the first Vietnam veteran elected to the New Jersey State Legislature.

And he wrote the legislation, he authored the legislation to put a memorial here in New Jersey.

So we're so honored to have him back, and another one of the committee members from the '80s who was here on board with this place before it was even built.

And it's gonna be a real full circle moment and a really special day on Monday.

- Amy, how'd you get connected to this extraordinarily important initiative?

- Well I've been working with veterans for about 30 years in one capacity or another.

I worked for the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs, I worked for the USO during my early career, and everything in between, I did a little bit of everything.

And two of my former bosses were on the board of directors here, former state Senator Nick Asselta, who you know, - That's right.

- and retired Colonel Michael Warner, as you also know.

And they were on the board and there was an opening, and they thought I'd be a perfect fit for it.

And I came aboard a little over two and a half years ago.

- Veterans who served in Vietnam are of a certain age, in their 70s, into their 80s, early 80s.

Are they connected to each other?

Meaning, and I always wonder about this with Facebook and social media, their high school friends that some of them are great to see, and others, you're like, you know, whatever.

But I think much more significantly, I often wonder about ways in which veterans of Vietnam can stay connected, and whether Facebook or Instagram allows for that.

How are they connected, if at all?

I just, I've been thinking about that lately.

- You know, a lot of the veterans stay in touch with their brothers that they served with in Vietnam, and I learned that from our docents.

We have boots on the ground docents that serve as our tour guides here.

And that was a question that I had for them too.

Do you stay in touch?

And a lot of them do, and not necessarily through social media, because a lot of them are of that age where they're not real savvy with social media.

And maybe if they are, it's mainly Facebook, and most of our followers are on our Facebook page for that reason.

But they do stay in touch with each other.

They do consider each other brothers and sisters, and regardless of what direction their lives have taken them in after they've returned home from Vietnam, they still are bonded by the fact that they served in country together and had each other's backs.

And the stories are incredible, and I hear them every day, so, absolutely.

- I'm sorry for interrupting.

Tell us about the documentary, "A Place of Honor."

- When I started here, I was trying to think of a creative way to promote the museum and the memorial, because it's the only one of its kind in the country.

And I was told when I started this job, "Oh, this is the best kept secret in New Jersey."

And that was not music to my ears.

You should not wanna be a best kept secret.

So I thought to myself, what would be a really good way to promote the place?

And I came across this filmmaker.

Her name is Vanessa Roth.

She is a very well-known documentary filmmaker.

Her father is Eric Roth, who won a Academy Award for "Forrest Gump."

So he's in the business himself, and she had done a piece on World War II Veterans that really just brought me to tears.

And we started talking to her and we ended up hiring her to do a documentary to tell the story of this place because it hadn't been told before.

I wanted people to know how it got here, which was a bipartisan effort, and a complete labor of love.

What we do here, which is so important, which is educating all these school kids and preserving the memory of the fallen.

And then also why it's important that we receive the funding so that we can stay here, because all these people worked so hard for so long, and it's got to stay here as a part of history.

And this documentary film called "A Place of Honor" tells that story.

And we are getting recognized by so many different groups now.

We just got back from San Diego.

We were nominated for three awards at the GI Film Festival in San Diego.

This weekend, I'll be flying back to California.

We are gonna be at an award show in Beverly Hills, believe it or not.

I can't even believe I'm saying that.

But we are nominated for best documentary film.

This is a feel-good documentary.

It's a short film, it's only 35 minutes, but it's impactful.

- I'm sorry.

Where can people see it, Amy?

- Not yet, they can't see it yet.

So Vanessa made us three short films as well.

And they can all be found on our website.

The first short is called "Remembrance."

And it follows a Gold Star mother through her journey of becoming a Gold Star mother.

The second one is called "In Our Shoes."

And it talks about the artifacts and the objects that mean so much to these Vietnam veterans or that hold some sort of story them.

And that's what we do here is we display their artifacts and we tell the stories.

And the third one is called "Why It Matters."

And that's mostly our publicity film.

And it's a short version of our long film.

So "A Place of Honor" is our longer film and "Why it Matters" is our shorter film, and all three of the short films can currently be found on our website.

"A Place of Honor" is still getting nominated.

So after Beverly Hills on June 7th in New Brunswick at Voorhees Hall, we'll be playing "A Place of Honor."

We're included in the New Jersey International Film Festival, so we're really excited about that.

- Congratulations, before I let you go, you mentioned funding before.

Your dollars come from where?

- Private donations.

We do get a little bit of state funding.

It could always be more.

And we have a partnership now with Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey, which has been a life saver for us.

And, well, we can't thank them enough for everything that they've done for us.

They also have a really fantastic product for our Vietnam veterans through a company called Braven Health, which is a part of their organization.

- And Horizon, big supporters, underwriters of public broadcasting.

Amy, to you and your colleagues continuing to do important work, thank you for your service, thank you for what you're doing.

And make sure you stay connected with us so we can continue to share the story.

Wish you all the best, Amy.

- Thank you.

You too.

Thank you, Steve.

Bye-bye.

- Our Pleasure.

I'm Steve Adubato, That's Amy Osborn.

I'll see you next time.

- [Narrator] One-On-One with Steve Adubato is a production of the Caucus Educational Corporation.

Funding has been provided by The Russell Berrie Foundation.

Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey.

RWJBarnabas Health.

Let’s be healthy together.

Eastern Atlantic States Regional Council of Carpenters.

The Turrell Fund, a foundation serving children.

New Jersey Sharing Network.

The North Ward Center.

Valley Bank.

And by EJI, Excellence in Medicine Awards.

A New Jersey health foundation program.

Promotional support provided by NJBIZ.

And by NJ.Com.

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