SANTA CRUZ, Calif. (Tribune News Service) -- Jeff Grubb is gearing up for the emotional journey of a lifetime.
For nearly 50 years, Grubb and his three brothers weren't sure how their father, Air Force Lt. Col. Wilmer Grubb, died after his plane was shot down during the Vietnam War.
But in 2014, a member of the North Vietnamese Army gunnery unit that shot the plane down reached out to the family to offer answers they never knew existed.
"I think we're all human beings," said Jeff Grubb, 58, a Santa Cruz resident since 1978. "War makes us do things to one another. But after the war, it's time to find ways to reconcile. That's what he's doing and that's what we're doing as well."
The brothers -- Jeff, Roland, Stephen and Roy -- their father and the former Vietnamese soldier, Du Pham, are subjects of a documentary, "Fruits of Peace" by Napkin Sketch Productions about the story.
In January 1966, Lt. Col. Wilmer Grubb was piloting a U.S. Air Force jet over Vietnam for a reconnaissance mission when a North Vietnamese Army gunnery unit shot the aircraft down and Wilmer Grubb was captured.
Grubb's wife and four sons held onto hope that Grubb might still be alive as photos showing him in good health were released by the Vietnamese government over the years. But after the war, the family learned Wilmer Grubb died eight days after his plane came down.
Decades after the war ended, Pham reached out to the brothers to offer condolences and invite them to the village.
Filmmakers initially focused on Pham's own journey to reunite with his brother, who lives in the U.S. and fought against the North Vietnamese Army. During his visit, Pham sought out Wilmer Grubb. But after research, Pham learned the Wilmer Grubb died of injuries during the war, a fact that surprised him since his former foe had little injuries when he was captured, Jeff Grubb said.
Through the filmmakers, Pham and other members of the gunnery unit invited the Grubb brothers to visit the country and find closure.
At first, the Grubbs were reluctant to accept the offer and become subjects of the documentary.
"It's a mixed bag of feelings because these were the guys that shot down my father," said Jeff Grubb, sitting in his home on Santa Cruz' Westside. "These were the guys that changed my life."
But Jeff Grubb also adds that the men who shot down the plane, now in their 70s and 80s, have details about their father that few could provide, including the U.S. government.
"Throughout the Vietnam War and almost the 50 years since the shootdown, we've only know he was shot down and that he was captured," Jeff Grubb said. "At the end of the war, we were told he died eight days after capture of wounds received during the crash."
Jeff Grubb said he remembers his father as a skilled pilot and a loving father who often went fishing and camping with his sons. One of Jeff Grubb's greatest regrets is not knowing his father as a man.
"He was always my father. He's this iconic, bigger than life kind of figure," Grubb said.
Grubb keeps a photo of his father standing next to a jet on a shelf near the kitchen.
Safely stored in an album are photos of Wilmer Grubb. One page shows photos of Wilmer Grubb standing proudly in front of a jet and posing with his family. But the next page reveals photos of Wilmer Grubb at the gunpoint of Vietnamese soldiers.
Though Grubb and his brothers moved on emotionally after the war, the chance to fill in the details of their father's story was too rare and too important.
"I can't 'help but try to imagine," Jeff Grubb said. "That's why we're looking for clarity about what happened after he was shot down. It'll be a hard truth, I'm sure. I'm fully prepared in the end to not know what happened."
Jeff Grubb is flying to Vietnam on Tuesday to meet with his brothers and the film crew. They expect to trace their father's journey through the country, from his capture in a village to where he may have died near the central region of the country.
"I expect it will be kind of tough and emotional in a lot of ways. We'll find some answers and a lot of stuff will be left hanging," he said. "But the opportunity to find out anything else after all this time is too important to pass up."
(c) 2015 the Santa Cruz Sentinel. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC
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