As a hobby, Sean Foster and his friends take audiences back to other eras in American history — from the United States’ conflicts with Germany in World War II to battles waged in the deep jungles of Vietnam.
Foster, who lives in Burlington, has been doing war re-enactments since 1995. He recently spoke to staff writer Ryan Seals about his hobby.
Q. How did you become involved in performing war re-enactments?
A. Ever since I was a young child, I’ve been interested in history. I have an older brother that is interested in it, and I wanted to emulate him. As a child, I played with G.I. Joes and things like that. I didn’t have the interest in sports like a lot of my peers, but I found military history fascinating.
Q. With the Vietnam War still being a sore topic with many who lived through the era, how does that play into preparations?
A. One thing that is different about Vietnam re-enacting is that, so far with my experience, there haven’t been many re-enacted battles the public can watch. It is a little difficult at times because it was an unpopular war. I think what is important is educating the public and trying to clear up some misconceptions that have been manifested through the past several decades.
Q. Have you ever received any negative feedback based on the war’s unpopularity?
A. There are some people who don’t understand why anyone would want to re-enact the war. It’s still a sore memory and some people don’t like to be reminded of it. I can understand and respect that. In my experience, I would say there are more people who appreciate the commitment people take to tell the stories.
Q. What kind of feedback do you get from veterans of Vietnam and Korea?
A. A lot of veterans are fascinated that anyone cares about what they went through. It seems that quite a few people are actually quite shocked that anyone would give a thought to remembering what they did and to try to give a visual reminder. The feedback we get is largely positive, and it’s great to hear some of the veterans open up and share some of their memories and experiences that they didn’t think anyone cared about.
Q. Do they give you any pointers?
A. Yes, all the time.
Q. In all the re-enactments you do, what preparations are taken to ensure historicalaccuracy?
A. That varies from person to person. There are some who have very high expectations for accuracy and others who are more lax in that. Personally, I try to be very accurate in what I do. It may mean that I have to spend quite a bit of time looking at photographs, reading books and trying to make sure I’m not wearing something they didn’t have. In addition to that, there’s the time you spend acquiring the different items you might be wearing and getting involved with others in the hobby and coordinating a display.
Q. What do you hope your re-enactments accomplish?
A. Just giving a little bit of an understanding of the era because one of the things people think of when they think of re-enactors is that they glorify war. What I tend to believe is that we represent an era. It’s important to understand that there are a lot of myths that are blown out of proportion. There are a lot of representations that I think are unfair to the veterans themselves. I think it’s important to educate people. ... It’s not just as simple as, they were drafted and they didn’t want to go and they had to. That was part of it, but not the whole picture.
Q. What is the most enjoyable part for you?
A. I’ve reached a point where I have many friends who are in this hobby of re-enacting. I enjoy having the chance to spend time with my friends. Some of them live hours away. When we are at an event, we get to spend time together and share what you’ve heard from veterans you’ve met.
Q. Most challenging?
A. When we are at a time line, and you find there are some people who don’t even know what the Vietnam War was. That’s a bit of a challenge because having studied it so long, I kind of take it for granted. It’s a shock to me when people don’t know.
Q. What challenges do you think re-enactors of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will face?
A. I think they are going to face a lack of representation from the other side, and that’s something that affects Vietnam War and Korean War re-enacting as well. I think there are also going to be some challenges in research in our day of electronic data. A lot of historians tend to do research with paper with documents in libraries and museums. A lot of the electronic data that exists today, such as communications between units with e-mail and so forth — a lot of that is deleted and there’s not a paper trail that people might want to have in the future for research.
Contact Ryan Seals at 373-7077 or ryan.seals@news-record.com
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