The Vietnam War Library (now The American War Library) was established seventeen years ago on July 4th, 1988.

21 years ago this month, while serving as a technical consultant for MilNet -- the Department of Defense project created by Congressional legislation authored by Senator Albert Gore, Jr. (Vietnam, 1969-70), a project that later evolved into
the Internet -- Phill Coleman (Vietnam, 1969-70) successfully completed testing America's first online, interactive library research tool. Two weeks later, on July 4th, 1988, Phill Coleman's dream was achieved. The Vietnam War Electronic
Library (now The American War Library) was born.

Photographs of the Wright Brothers, Thomas Edison and Albert Einstein hang on the wall above Phill Coleman’s patchwork computer apparatus of jumbled wires, flashing lights and a bushelbasket of burned out circuit boards.

A communications/intelligence specialist in Vietnam responsible for maintaining highly classified communications between senior command centers in Vietnam and the Pentagon, and serving as one of only four strategically and clandestinely
assigned “Presidential Information Officers” personally commissioned by Mr. Harry R. Haldemann, White House Chief of Staff, to ensure vital intelligence information required by the President of the United States was delivered without
discriminatory military intervention, Phill Coleman utilized improvisational technical skills taught by U.S. Army and National Security Agency communications and intelligence training to develop America's first online, interactive
telecommunications service for active duty military personnel, law enforcement and military veterans to exchange thoughts and experiences... and correctly document American wartime history from the Revolutionary War to the present.
Operating also in support of Central Intelligence and Federal Bureau of Investigation personnel assigned to III Corps Tactical Zone (Saigon Region), Phill Coleman worked to ensure that their vital communications integrity with CONUS command
centers remained both secure and uninterrupted.

The following New York Times report was published on December 6th, 1988 (Researchers: NY Times microfiche is available at your local public library):

EXCERPT: "REDONDO BEACH, CA - ....Phillip Roger Coleman (United States Army Signal Corps) enlisted in 1968 with enthusiasm and volunteered for service in Vietnam.

“In Vietnam one of his duties was burying closet-size communications stations in the jungle for soldiers who were stranded. He now spends much of his day in a room much-like those emergency hideaways. The cramped room in the back of his
clothing store here in Redondo Beach, California has a personal computer into which he is typing a record of what he calls a noble war that lost its way.

“Since July, Mr. Coleman has transcribed more than 300 documents into his Vietnam Data Resource and Electronic Library [now over 40,000]. Leaders of veterans groups and historians at the State Department say his effort is the first serious
attempt to chronicle the Vietnam War by computer..."

        Full text of the 1988 New York Times article is accessible at
        URLs:

        1. http://www.nytimes.com/1988/12/06/us/redondo-beach-journal-guide-to-a...

        2.  http://www.americanwarlibrary.com/a44/pc2.htm

        The American War Library:
        Main Website: amervets.com (http://www.amervets.com)
        Public Information Office: 13105320634.com (http://www.13105320634.com)
        (Or: ourphonenumber.com (http://www.ourphonenumber.com)

        Mr. Coleman's Vietnam autobiography (published, 1984)
        includes an excerpt from a letter/review written by
        General William C. Westmoreland:
        http://www.americanwarlibrary.com/a44/cf.htm

        The Harry Robert Haldemann Drug Enforcement Agent Watch:
        http://home.pacbell.net/amerhero/dea/haldeman.htm

-- Otis Willie (Ret.)
   Military News and Information Editor (http://www.13105320634.com)
   The American War Library, Est. 1988 (http://www.amervets.com)
   16907 Brighton Avenue
   Gardena CA 90247
   1-310-532-0634

   Military Personnel Database
   http://www.amervets.com/library.htm

   Military and Vet Info-Exchange/Discussion Groups
   http://www.amervets.com/share.htm

   Public Information Office
   http://www.13105320634.com