In the spring of 2008 Britt Taylor Collins finished an oil painting that depicted five servicemen, under fire, carrying a wounded soldier to the safety of an inbound Huey. Depicting an all too common experience of the Vietnam warrior, Britt titled his artwork, “We Gotta Get Out of This Place”, after the famous song from the sixties.

One afternoon while putting various marketing materials together, the artist began sketching a logo to represent the new painting. Starting with the idea of using 1960’s letterforms, an initial form emerged. Pushing the concept further, the artist contemplated fitting the song’s title together in such a way as to create the silhouette of a peace dove. After two major revisions and hundreds of sheets of tracing paper, the design was finalized.

Now, a few years later, the “We Gotta Get Out of This Place” peace dove, which began life as a logo for a Vietnam painting is quickly becoming the iconic symbol of the Vietnam War itself. ( Interestingly, the Smithsonian Institute has immortalized this song by Eric Burdon and the Animals as “the mantra” of the Vietnam War, featuring a bronze plaque to this effect in the Vietnam Exhibit. ) Reminiscent of a psychedelic Fillmore East concert poster, this icon is evocative of a “time that was a-changin’ ”. The dove endures throughout the ages as a symbol of peace, that which the Vietnam Veteran still pursues. This peace may be with a country that sent off a generation to fight and die on unknown hillsides, and later cursed them as “baby killers”. Or it may be a peace with a inner soul that saw too much, and still awakes in the unknown hours with a “thousand yard stare”.

Further, the shape of the country of Vietnam is depicted in the dove‘s beak, defined by the colors of the Vietnam Service Ribbon that every Vietnam Veteran was authorized to wear. North of the beak was the domain of our enemy, and a living hell for our captured servicemen. The South was ours to save from the advances of the North’s aggressive communism, a land itself infested with a determined enemy, pock-marked with our isolated firebases, and our battlefields.

This little dove with the country of Vietnam in its beak has taken on a life of its own. And like the carrier pigeons of old, it carries a message of peace and hope to the warriors of a time gone by. We give honor and tribute today to the men and women who served in Vietnam, living and dead. his icon serves to remind us of the price of “the last full measure of devotion”. Continuing to borrow better words, “It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this”.