NMDVS Produces Two Documentary Movies Focusing on New Mexico Veterans.

(SANTA FE, NM)--Two documentary movies produced by the New Mexico Department of Veterans’ Services (NMDVS) featuring New Mexico veterans are getting positive reviews throughout the state..

Letters of Honor was shown on Albuquerque TV station KNME-TV--New Mexico’s biggest PBS station--over the Veterans’ Day weekend.

Soldiers of Honor was screened before a near-capacity crowd of 350 at the historic Rio Grande Theater in Las Cruces on December 7th—the 67th anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack.

Both movies were produced by the NMDVS as part of its ongoing New Mexico Military Legacy Project to preserve the state’s rich military heritage.

Letters of Honor featured the letters written by soldiers on the battlefront—from World War I all the way up to the current War on Terrorism in Iraq and Afghanistan—to loved ones back home in New Mexico.
These letters are read on-camera by surviving family members—or in some cases, the veteran who wrote it.

Footage of actual letters, old photographs, personal mementos, and stunning shots of the New Mexico landscape combine to make “Letters of Honor” a powerfully moving tale showing the sometimes conflicting “pull” of the soldiers’ love and longing of family—and sense of duty to their country.

“New Mexico has such a rich and strong history of military service by its citizens,” said NMDVS Cabinet Secretary Garcia. “I felt we needed to act quickly to start preserving this heritage because every year we’re losing veterans, their survivors—and with this, access to these incredibly powerful letters and personal accounts of the war.”

Soldiers of Honor focuses on a visit of 39 World War II veterans and one
WW II nurse from the Las Cruces area in southern New Mexico--to the National World War II Monument in Washington, D.C. this fall.

The NMDVS commissioned an independent film crew to shadow the group—from its departure, the cross-country flight, a welcoming reception, and the eventual arrival of the group at the monument site.

The camera captured the moods, feelings and thoughts of these veterans as they ponder the meaning of their first-ever visit to the monument. All are in their mid-to-late eighties in age. Many are in wheelchairs, or need assistance in getting around.

The group made the journey through the Honor Flight Program, which pays for the first-time visit of any WWII veteran to the National WWII Memorial.
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“It’s important to hear from these veterans who served in what’s often called the greatest conflict the world has ever seen,” said Secretary Garcia. “Soldiers of Honor is a video archive which today’s and all future generations of New Mexicans can learn about what their ancestors went through when saving the world from possible conquest by Germany and Japan.”

Las Cruces Mayor Pro-Tem Dolores Archuleta attended the special screening—and was moved to tears by the movie.

“Soldiers of Honor is a powerful tribute to these heroes,” said Dolores Archuleta. “The site itself is a fantastic monument. But so too are the veterans—they’re living monuments to the war. I commend Secretary Garcia for having the foresight to commission a film crew to capture the emotions and feelings of the veterans as they visit the site for the first time.”

Under Secretary Garcia’s leadership, the New Mexico Military Legacy Project plans to produce future documentaries focusing on New Mexico veterans serving in the Korean Conflict, the Vietnam War, and on OEF/OIF veterans serving in the current War on Terrorism.



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