Fox News Broadcaster Harris Faulkner Honors Father in Latest Project
Fox News Broadcaster Harris Faulkner Honors Father in Latest By Movieguide® Contributor
Harris Faulkner’s newest special, FOOTSTEPS OF MY FATHER, explored her father’s role in the Vietnam War and how it shaped the man she grew up under.
“So before we went, I had done some homework, you know, historical facts. I worked with a military historian, his father worked contemporaneously with mine in the war, and Brian DeToy is a wonderful military historian who also taught at West Point, so we both had a good idea of some of the places that we wanted to go,” Faulkner told Shannon Bream.
“We got, you know, military information on where my dad had served and all of that. We didn’t get some of the details though, and things that the Pentagon could not have told me had to do with the type of leader that my father was in his daily missions, and how they shaped him as a human being… It really is fascinating,” she continued.
Civil Rights Movement
Along with his service abroad, Faulkner’s father was facing a crisis at home with the onset of the civil rights movement, which many African Americans believed took precedence over the U.S.’s involvement in Vietnam. Faulkner’s father, however, saw it as his duty to serve and fight for the freedom of other countries, and in that capacity believed he could prove that could earn the respect that was stripped from him because of his skin color.
“What [my father] would say to his younger brothers and the people around him who questioned his going off to secure freedoms for other countries who wanted a government like ours – a democracy and a republic that had a a U.S. [-like] constitution – they wanted to be like us, the south Vietnamese. He said, ‘I believe on both sides of this civil rights issue love America,’” Faulkner said. “He said, ‘I don’t have a doubt about that, they just love it differently and they think protecting it looks different and they want to show everybody that they’re right.’”
“He said, ‘We’ve had a lot of struggles like that in our short history of our young country.’ And he would tell people, I would rather go and fight for a country with the most promise of any other on the planet, than not,” she continued. “Maybe I can’t, [he would say], through my actions get people to see me, the American military, see me for my merit rather than only my skin color.”
“Maybe I can be a part of a solution moving forward,” Faulkner added. “Now, he didn’t think he could singlehandedly do that but he said, ‘Maybe I can be part of what that looks like.’”
Military Achievements
Faulkner’s father was able to achieve his goal and after making major during the war through two tours, ended up working as a high-ranking military official. The special, which is now available on Fox Nation meant more to Faulkner than just learning new things about her father, it was also about walking the same paths he had and reliving the stories he had told.
“This is the most personal I have ever been in front of the camera,” she told People. “Trekking my dad’s combat trail in Vietnam was almost too much for my heart to take at times. I carried his burial flag with me in my backpack. When I landed in Vietnam there was a rush of emotions. I missed my parents more than ever.”
Movieguide® previously reported:
Harris Faulkner celebrated ten years of hosting Fox News’ hit show OUTNUMBERED and discussed her upcoming special FOOTSTEPS OF MY FATHER which explores what her father lived through during the Vietnam War.
Faulkner has been a co-host on OUTNUMBERED since its launch. It’s one of Fox News’ top shows and ranks as one of the top-rated daytime talk shows.
“From the moment the studio doors opened for the first time, it was obvious to me that this would be a hit. I could just feel it,” FaulknertoldPEOPLE. “As the remaining original co-host and a co-creator of OUTNUMBERED, my vision was and still is, to bring non-scripted, spicy discussion to an audience that appreciates the truth and good TV.”
“For 10 years my behind the scenes life on OUTNUMBERED has been a delicious mix of motherhood; up and down with my weight; keeping up with the biggest breaking news, political elections and road trips gathers America’s most important stories,” she added. “And viewers show us every day that they enjoy being along for this joyous ride that rates like pancakes.”
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