Entry Details

About the Entry

Category: 
Print > Feature Article > 12 or More Issues per Year > Central

Title of entry: 
Brothers in Arms, in War and Peace

Issue or Publication date:
March 2023

Publication name: 
Arizona Attorney Magazine

Publishing/parent company: 
State Bar of Arizona

View Website home page:
https://www.azattorneymag-digital.com/azattorneymag/library/

Description of the enterprising work that went into this entry and its significance or impact on readers:

This special cover story – “Brothers in Arms, in War and Peace” – nearly a year in the making, was our magazine’s first in history to be the sole feature article. Published in the 50th anniversary month of the U.S. final withdrawal from Vietnam (March 1973), the 32-page story delved into the compelling experiences of 34 Vietnam War veterans who later became Arizona attorneys. In this effort to localize a national and global event, we set as goals for ourselves to tell as many stories as possible and to do it via one-on-one interviews and the inclusion of photos to personalize the narrative even more. We believed readers would be moved by the stories, and that they – like us – would marvel at the youth of these individuals at the moment their nation called upon them. Now in their 70s or older, by telling their stories these seasoned lawyers provided a powerful and emotional glimpse into the perils facing servicemen barely out of their teens. The project was phenomenally successful, yielding more letters to the editor than any content in decades. Numerous readers told us that the piece moved them tremendously, some even to tears. Others added that the piece shocked them, as they’ve known many of these people for years and had no idea they had served during the Vietnam War.
Our target audience for this ambitious project was broad. We hoped to engage our entire legal audience, in whatever chapter of their career. In early conversations with our author (nearly a year before publication), we agreed that we needed to engage not merely the “Boomer” portion of our readership, whom we assumed would be deeply interested in the topic and their veteran colleagues. But we needed to engage more broadly. That led us to conclude that we needed remarkable art and design, plus compelling first-person narrative, to draw in everyone. Seeing the faces of so many of the young servicemembers – plus National Archives photos – is eye-opening and gut-wrenching, and members and nonmembers of all ages have told us that they have never before been so moved by our content.
We had no additional monies or resources allocated for this project beyond the usual costs of putting out a monthly issue. As for the art, beyond the veteran-supplied photos, we specifically sought royalty-free and National Archives photos to round out the story and provide sweeping and poignant visual power.

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