Veterans Day, November 11, 2019
News Posted Courtesy of Wright Enterprises Community Spotlight~~~
Honor Among Soldiers and Military Families In
“Love Separated in Life…Love Reunited in Honor”
by San Francisco Independent Filmmakers Screens in
Jacksonville, Florida During Veterans Day Week
San Francisco-A film by San Francisco publicist Jackie Wright, founder of Wright Enterprises and Jack LiVolsi, CEO and Founder of San Francisco's Jackson Street Productions will screen this Veterans Day Week at the Jacksonville Film Festival. "Love Separated in Life…Love Reunited in Honor" written and directed by Wright with LiVolsi as co-director and editor is among the festival selections.
The 12th Annual Jacksonville Film Festival will showcase 101 films representing 21 countries with 26% directed by Women. It will be held at the historic San Marco Theater, 1996 San Marco Boulevard in Jacksonville, Florida, November 15-17, 2019.
"I'm thrilled to be able to share with our community this fantastic collection of international, domestic and local films at this year's festival. The level of quality, top to bottom, may be the best collection of films we have seen to date. Film craftsmanship has risen across the globe and we're the beneficiaries. Don't miss this program. Join us and be a part of something special," said Tim Driscoll, Jacksonville Film Festival Program Director.
"Love Separated in Life…Love Reunited in Honor" will be screened on Saturday, November 16th during the "The Peace Your Valor Won" block from 12-noon in Theater One of the historic San Marco Theater. It precedes "Who Killed Lt. Van Dorn," directed by Zachery Stauffer. The efforts of Nicole Van Dorn, the widow of Wes Van Dorn, a 29 year old U.S. Naval Academy graduate and father of two, spurred an investigation that uncovered a long history of negligence and institutional failings around the 53E helicopter—the model Van Dorn was piloting when he was killed, and the deadliest aircraft in the US military.
For more details about the Jacksonville Film Festival visit: https://jacksonvillefilmfestival.com/.
Background on "Love Separated in Life…Love Reunited in Honor"
The Internet allowed the Wright Family to find out the circumstances of the March 9, 1964 death of Sp5 Wyley Wright Jr., whose last of over 300 missions, two weeks before returning home, was as an honor guard for Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara of San Francisco, who was viewing the troops. The description of the UH-1B 62-01961 helicopter crash in the Mekong River near Sedac was recorded in "The Gold Book" and posted on the Internet.
"Love Separated in Life…Love Reunited in Honor" chronicles the exhumation of Sp5 Wright from a segregated cemetery in Jacksonville, Florida and reburial with his widow, March 10, 2014 at Arlington National Cemetery, fifty years and a day after his death.
The short documentary film also shows, two of his four children, who were 10 years old, 8 years old, 5 years old and 6 months at the time of his death, finding an Army base in Vietnam named in Wright's honor. "The Shannon Wright Compound" named for 1Lt. Kenneth A. Shannon and Sp5 Wyley Wright of the 114th Aviation Company (Knights of the Air) in Vinh Long, Vietnam was not known to the Wright siblings until the 21st Century. Growing up, they had no idea that their father was so respected by his fellow soldiers.
As children the Wright siblings had no knowledge that during the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement, their father, a Black man, who helped desegregate the U.S. military, was honored with his White fellow comrade. For years, The Wrights have seen their father's name on the Vietnam Memorial Wall and had no idea that the name that followed his, Kenneth A. Shannon was connected in honor.
The highlights of the film include the Wright family meeting a Houston, Texas native, George Moll, who was 19 years old at the time Sp5 Wright mentored him. Also, Mrs. Ginger Shannon Young, the widow of Fallen Hero 1LT. Kenneth A. Shannon, who died March 15, 1964, attended the 2014 Arlington ceremony. Moll and Shannon Young, both White exemplified how President Harry S. Truman's Executive Order 9981 changed race relations in the United States beginning with the integration of the U.S. Military.
A year following the "Love Separated in Life…Love Reunited in Honor" ceremony in Arlington, The Wright Sisters met the family of the Vietnamese photographer, who made the treasured last wedding anniversary gifts for Sp5 Wright for "the love of his life," his wife of eleven years, Ouida Fay. A tribute to soldiers and their families, the film demonstrates how people of different races came together to give honor to the fallen.
The uniqueness of the short documentary is found in a clip that did not make the final cut of the film.
Vietnamese tour guide, Hung Phan Ngoc, sings and plays the anti-war song "Where Have All the Flowers Gone" on his harmonica, as a request as the wreath honoring the 58,000 Fallen U.S. soldiers and the Fallen Vietnamese people floats down the Mekong River: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXx3_bQ1-Jk. "It was one of those God-ordained moments. It was amazing to randomly have a Vietnamese tour guide who knew so much about the American culture. I didn't even have the foreknowledge to even ask for such a blessing," said Wright.
"Love Separated in Life…Love Reunited in Honor" recently won the "Veterans Award" at the Freedom Festival International in Columbia, South Carolina in August. It was screened in Los Angeles at the Silicon Beach Film Festival in June and was among the top nominated finalists at the San Diego Black Film Festival in January. During Black History Month 2019, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner, presented Moll a certificate of honor for his role in honoring Wright at the Arlington Ceremony as captured in the documentary. Virginia Governor Ralph Northam presented Mrs. Shannon Young with a letter of commendation heralding her humanitarian actions and honoring the memory of fallen heroes, "no matter the race."
Related to the film, "Love Separated in Life…Love Reunited in Honor" is an e-book released May 2018 by Jackie Wright via smashwords.com. "Dead Men Tell No Tales; But their Children Do" can be found at
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/834396. It was the beginning of expression on how the Vietnam War impacted the Wright Family.
For more information about future screenings and screening opportunities for organizations, contact Jackie Wright at
or call, 415 525 0410.