CARMEL – Putnam County Director of Veterans Services Karl Rohde will be traveling to Albany next month to participate in a panel commemorating the 50th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War.
Rohde, a Vietnam vet, Silver Star recipient, and former commander of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, will be joined by other veteran leaders at the March 25 event at the Empire State Plaza.
In addition to the discussion, guests will have the opportunity to view a multimedia presentation featuring veterans’ film clips from the HBO documentary “Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam,” sharing their thoughts and experiences.
Rohde said the exhibition honors the “words and voices of those who served.”
Rohde is well known far beyond the borders of Putnam County. Last year, he reflected on his past when reciting “With No Name on the Marquee: A Window into the Experiences of a Vietnam Veteran” by stepping back into his past telling his audiences in Beacon the ways in which he grappled with the experiences in the war and the return to civilian life after his tour.
Rohde joined the Army in December 1968. After Basic Training and Advanced Infantry Training at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, he arrived in Vietnam in July 1969.
Years later at age 41, Karl wrote about his experience “in theatre,” looking back at his time in Vietnam as a 21-year-old, resulting in his one-man, one-act play which he first performed in 2023 on the 50th anniversary of the last U.S. combat troops departing Vietnam on March 29, 1973.
Rohde said when he was discharged from the service “writing was my therapy. That’s how I dealt with things, I didn’t necessarily talk to anybody – Vietnam veterans, we didn’t talk to anybody, we hid that we were veterans for a lot of years. So, that was very cathartic for me.”
After Rohde wrote the play, he kept it to himself. “It spent the better part of 40 years collecting dust in a closet in my home. It wasn’t until I unveiled the story at a writing workshop with Dwyer Vet2Vet, now a part of Guardian Revival’s Peer Services Division, that I was encouraged to read the play in front of an audience,” he said.
After polishing the play and reading it to an audience on stage at the Carmel VFW post with no props, Rohde ran into fellow guardian Brian Freeman, who approached him with an idea for how to elevate his already powerful story. “Brian was so excited about the play, and he asked me about putting ‘60s music in it,” he said.
With Rohde’s powerful storytelling and the support of musicians from the Encore program, “With No Name on the Marquee” was transformed from a script that was never intended to be seen by an audience into a theatrical experience that takes attendees on a cathartic journey through the experiences of a Vietnam veteran.
The play focuses on a character called Veteran Vietnam. It delves into his experiences during the war as well as the deep emotions he grapples with upon reentering the civilian world.
Through this personal and powerful narrative, Rohde shines a light on the struggles many Vietnam veterans faced – struggles that often went unspoken for decades.
Rohde hopes the play will make it easier for other veterans to open up about their experiences and process their experiences. “‘With No Name on the Marquee’ isn’t just for veterans or active-duty service members; it’s for anyone who has experienced any kind of trauma. I want to be a catalyst for people to share their experiences, and not necessarily military experiences. You may have a traumatic experience that happened to you in life that has nothing to do with the military. You may ask yourself: ‘If this veteran can talk so freely about his experiences, maybe I can too.’”
One of the most striking aspects of “With No Name on the Marquee” is its raw, unfiltered portrayal of a soldier’s reality. Rohde doesn’t romanticize the war or the veteran experience. Instead, he presents an honest and emotional account of what it means to serve, return home, and try to make sense of a world that has moved on without you.
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