• When/Where: Oct. 4 at Monroe High School
• What: Exhibits, including photos and memorabilia by Army photographer Peter Finnegan, from noon to 1:30 p.m. Program begins at 1:30 p.m. Speakers will include Finnegan; author Steve Saunders; Monroe veteran Junior Robertson; Kay Krebs, family member of deceased veteran; and Clayton Ruegsegger of Green County Veterans Services.
• Cost: Free and open to the public
MADISON - For Peter Finnegan, photographing the Vietnam war for the U.S. Army was making the best of a tough situation.
Finnegan, a 1966 graduate of Fennimore High School, volunteered for the draft in 1968, after flunking out of University of Wisconsin-Platteville. "I was there for the wrong reasons," he said, and because he was no longer in college, he lost his deferment. He knew he was going to get drafted, and by volunteering for a two-year stint, he got to choose when he would leave, he said.
He entered the Army in September. By January 1969, he was in Vietnam.
He was in an infantry division and ended up in a hospital with dysentery. A re-enlistment officer there offered a deal Finnegan couldn't refuse: If he re-enlisted for three years, he could pick his job among choices such as cook, mechanic or photographer.
And so Finnegan became an Army photographer. He tagged along with writers for "Hurricane," an Army publication, shooting the photos that would accompany their stories.
"I was constantly taking photos," he said. He'd go out in the field, take the photos, and then take the film back - to an air-conditioned photo lab, he said.
The Army went through all of Finnegan's photos, taking the ones they wanted.
Finnegan took the ones the Army didn't want and sent them home.
"I took those 35-millimeter color slides, wrapped them up in tissue and sent them back to my mother in Fennimore," he said, estimating he sent home more than a thousand slides.
Once his duty was up, Finnegan dabbled a little in photography but mostly pursued rock and roll for a time before making his career in pest control. The images sat in an old trunk, all but forgotten.
In 1998, Finnegan's daughter, then a high school student, was learning about Vietnam. Finnegan mentioned the images he had saved from Vietnam were still at his mother's house.
"We went down there and started looking at them. I thought, "These are really pretty good,'" he said.
He began the process of having enlargements printed from the slides, matting and framing them. People asked about them, and, by 1999, Finnegan had 94 framed images for his first show.
"The show has kind of grown from there," he said.
He's taken his show on the road: His photos have been exhibited at the Civic Center in Madison, Lambeau Field in Green Bay, eight colleges and several high schools throughout Wisconsin.
It was during a program honoring Vietnam veterans in Grant County that Finnegan ran into Tammy Derrickson, director of the Behring Senior Center and organizer of a similar program for Green County veterans. That program is planned for Oct. 4 at Monroe High School.
Finnegan, who now lives in Madison, will be bringing about 130 photos, as well as other memorabilia, to the Monroe event.
His show is titled "Good Soldier, Bad Soldier" and reflects the turbulent time represented during the Vietnam era. For instance, he said, he has images of orphans who were fathered by Americans and tended to by young girls who were half French. "The orphanage didn't have squat," he said. Finnegan had written home about the conditions and his mother and sisters had collected clothing for the children. Finnegan captured the orphans dressing up with the soldiers.
He includes images of the darker reality of Vietnam, such as soldiers using opium and marijuana.
"I remind people, the guy smoking opium is the same guy who is putting clothes on those orphans," Finnegan said.
Finnegan, a 1966 graduate of Fennimore High School, volunteered for the draft in 1968, after flunking out of University of Wisconsin-Platteville. "I was there for the wrong reasons," he said, and because he was no longer in college, he lost his deferment. He knew he was going to get drafted, and by volunteering for a two-year stint, he got to choose when he would leave, he said.
He entered the Army in September. By January 1969, he was in Vietnam.
He was in an infantry division and ended up in a hospital with dysentery. A re-enlistment officer there offered a deal Finnegan couldn't refuse: If he re-enlisted for three years, he could pick his job among choices such as cook, mechanic or photographer.
And so Finnegan became an Army photographer. He tagged along with writers for "Hurricane," an Army publication, shooting the photos that would accompany their stories.
"I was constantly taking photos," he said. He'd go out in the field, take the photos, and then take the film back - to an air-conditioned photo lab, he said.
The Army went through all of Finnegan's photos, taking the ones they wanted.
Finnegan took the ones the Army didn't want and sent them home.
"I took those 35-millimeter color slides, wrapped them up in tissue and sent them back to my mother in Fennimore," he said, estimating he sent home more than a thousand slides.
Once his duty was up, Finnegan dabbled a little in photography but mostly pursued rock and roll for a time before making his career in pest control. The images sat in an old trunk, all but forgotten.
In 1998, Finnegan's daughter, then a high school student, was learning about Vietnam. Finnegan mentioned the images he had saved from Vietnam were still at his mother's house.
"We went down there and started looking at them. I thought, "These are really pretty good,'" he said.
He began the process of having enlargements printed from the slides, matting and framing them. People asked about them, and, by 1999, Finnegan had 94 framed images for his first show.
"The show has kind of grown from there," he said.
He's taken his show on the road: His photos have been exhibited at the Civic Center in Madison, Lambeau Field in Green Bay, eight colleges and several high schools throughout Wisconsin.
It was during a program honoring Vietnam veterans in Grant County that Finnegan ran into Tammy Derrickson, director of the Behring Senior Center and organizer of a similar program for Green County veterans. That program is planned for Oct. 4 at Monroe High School.
Finnegan, who now lives in Madison, will be bringing about 130 photos, as well as other memorabilia, to the Monroe event.
His show is titled "Good Soldier, Bad Soldier" and reflects the turbulent time represented during the Vietnam era. For instance, he said, he has images of orphans who were fathered by Americans and tended to by young girls who were half French. "The orphanage didn't have squat," he said. Finnegan had written home about the conditions and his mother and sisters had collected clothing for the children. Finnegan captured the orphans dressing up with the soldiers.
He includes images of the darker reality of Vietnam, such as soldiers using opium and marijuana.
"I remind people, the guy smoking opium is the same guy who is putting clothes on those orphans," Finnegan said.