Movie Vets Help the Rest of Us Appreciate

Like most Americans, I have never experienced the honor of wearing the uniform of one of our brave military branches in service to my country. I have heard it from many who are my same age. We turned 18 years of age in the late 1970's and early 1980's. There was no war, unless you count the Cold War, and in many homes the tradition of military service was not passed along.

I have always felt it missing from my own set of life experiences and from my professional resume. An opportunity to experience that sense of duty and honor, and of service to my country and community, is certainly one of the many reasons that I joined the Philadelphia Police Department almost two decades ago now. If I didn't make the choice as a kid to put on the uniform of my country, then at least I could put on a uniform here and help protect our homeland.

Still, it would be hard for most of us to ever appreciate what real soldiers, sailors, and pilots have experienced as they have defended both our nation directly and the cause of freedom around the world. While television news shows missiles being launched and far away explosions, they rarely, if ever, show the truth of close, intense combat situations and the split-second decisions that can mean the difference between life and death.

What was it really like to climb inside the cockpit of a fighter plane in World War II and engage in a mission over enemy lines, perhaps in combat with Nazi or Japanese pilots? What was it really like to crawl inside of a tank and head out into the deserts of Iraq? What was it really like to trudge through a swamp in the jungles of Vietnam? What was it really like to charge on to a battle field in the Civil War? What was it like to cross the Delaware River in a small boat, freezing and shivering in the cold with General Washington in the Revolutionary War?

For all of it's many faults, one of the things that Hollywood has managed to do best is to portray those military heroes well, bringing us close to the battles and often inside the very heads of the individuals involved. Whether those men and women were fighting in combat in war time or protecting our nation and it's interests in peace time, motion pictures have given us the opportunity to get close to the action.

In 1998, Steven Spielberg took us right out on to Omaha Beach with it's horror and death during the D-Day invasion of World War II. Tom Hanks, Tom Sizemore, Edward Burns, Barry Pepper, Adam Goldberg, Vin Diesel, Paul Giamatti, Matt Damon, Dennis Farina and the rest of the stellar cast of 'Saving Private Ryan' took us into the heads, hearts, and minds of the heroes who rescued humanity from Imperial Japan and Nazi Germany.

In 1994, Hanks had joined with director Robert Zemeckis and fellow actors Gary Sinise and Mykelti Williamson to explore the Vietnam War and it's participants from some unusual angles in 'Forrest Gump'. Back in 1979, Francis Ford Coppola had given us a look into the jungle battles with starring turns from Marlon Brando, Martin Sheen, Robert Duvall, Laurence Fishburne, Harrison Ford, Sam Bottoms, and Dennis Hopper in 'Apocalypse Now'. In 1986, Oliver Stone's 'Platoon' with Keith David, Forest Whitaker, Kevin Dillon, Johnny Depp, Willem Dafoe, and Charlie Sheen took us back to the 'Nam.

While World War II and Vietnam have been the focus of some of the best war movies in motion picture history, many other conflicts around the world have shone a light on the struggles and accomplishments of America's fighting heroes. From 1935's 'Gone With the Wind' visiting the Civil War to 2005's 'Jarhead' taking us inside Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm we have seen American troops rise to defend their nation, democracy, and freedom.

So while few of us have had or ever will have that experience, we get at least a small taste of the hardships, the horrors, and the sacrifices that men and women make when they join the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard, and other military service groups thanks to the best of these Hollywood productions. Still, while it gives us a taste, it will never compare to real life.

Those men and women represented by these Hollywood characters and caricatures, by these retellings of history, and by the drama of fiction within a historical construct are the real heroes who we must always thank and never forget.

Especially today, on Veteran's Day here in the United States, we must all join together in supporting and thanking the military veterans who fight for our nation, and in some cases who are injured and even die for the cause of our freedom and liberty.

From the Halls of Montezuma

The United States Marine Corps today celebrates the 234th birthday for the American fighting force that has spearheaded victories in battles from Mexico's 'Halls of Montezuma' to Africa's 'shores of Tripoli' and thousands of locales in between.

Whether in the Middle East today, or in the pre-Vietnam War days when my father, Matthew Veasey, served in the Corps, or in the World War II days, when my father-in-law, Robert Marshall, served in the Corps in the Pacific theatre, Americans have served their country in this elite group of warriors and marksmen.

On November 10th, 1775, at the beginning of the Revolutionary War, the 2nd Continental Congress resolved that a military group be formed to be known as the Continental Marines. The group would eventually consist of 131 officers and approximately 2,000 enlisted Marines.

Five days earlier, the Congress had commissioned Samuel Nicholas of Philadelphia as a 'Captain of Marines', the first officer commissioned for the group. He would become accepted in tradition as the first 'Commandant of the Marine Corps', the highest ranking officer.

Tradition also holds that much of the recruitment efforts for the group were held at Philadelphia's Tun Tavern. The tavern was a nearly century old gathering place at Water and Tun Streets, with a restaurant having been added a few decades earlier. The proprietor during the Revolutionary period, Robert Mullen, became the chief Marine recruiter.

The primary service of this Marine force would be to serve as on-board security for naval Captains and their officers. They would also position Marine sharpshooters at the tops of the ships' masts during naval battles with the assignment of taking out the opposition officers and other important ship personnel.

The first group, consisting of 5 companies with 300 Marines, met up with the Navy in the Caribbean in December of 1775, and under Nicholas they joined the Navy operations quickly undertaken in the Bahamas. Eventually, Marines would fight with George Washington's troops at Trenton and would participate in many other Revolutionary War actions.

At the war's conclusion, both the Navy and the Marines were disbanded in June of 1785. It would be 13 years before the now U.S. Congress finally permanently created the United States Marine Corps in 1798 as it prepared the military for a naval war with France. During these early years of re-establishment, the Corps took part in it's famous effort to capture 'the shores of Tripoli' during the First Barbary War against the African Barbary pirates.

During the War of 1812, the Marines were pivotal in what was largely a water-based series of battles with the British empire in the Atlantic Ocean off the American east coast and along the nation's inner rivers and other waterways. Particularly significant were their efforts to slow the British march to the nation's new capitol at Washington, D.C. and in the defense of New Orleans.

The Marines next fought in the Seminole Wars, particularly in the 2nd Seminole War of 1835-1842, when the U.S. was battling Native Americans for control of Florida. It was during their next efforts in the Mexican-American War of 1846-48 that the Corps battled into those storied 'halls of Montezuma' as the United States took control of the territory of Texas.

The Civil War in America from 1861-1865 saw the Marines do little but participate in blockades as many of their ranks split between the two battling sides of the temporarily split nation. In the decade following the Civil War, the Marine Corps emblem and the famous 'hymn' were each developed. Then in 1883 the Corps adopted it's famous motto of Semper Fidelis: Always Faithful, now frequently shortened to the famous cry of "Semper Fi!"

In 1898, the Marines played another significant role in the Spanish-American War, particularly in seizing a military base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba which remains American territory to this day. During the early years of the 20th century the Corps saw action as far afield as the Boxer Rebellion in China and the Banana Wars in Haiti and Nicaragua.

It was during World War I that the Marines began to gain their modern reputation. Here the Marine Corps fought bravely at Belleau Wood near Paris, France during the German spring offensive in 1918. It became legend that the Germans so respected the Marines fighting spirit that they took to calling them Teufel Hunden, or Devil Dogs. The nickname stuck and has been a point of pride ever since.

The Marines did not go into hiding between the two massive World Wars, but instead saw the coming 2nd conflict and took numerous measures to study amphibious warfare and prepare for what they believed was a coming war with Japan. When the Japanese attacked at Pearl Harbor and the conflict in the Pacific broke out, the Marines were ready. It was during the WWII battle at Iwo Jima that the iconic image of 'Raising the Flag at Iwo Jima' captured 5 Marines and a Navy man raising the American flag over that hard-fought island.

Through both Korea and Vietnam, the Marines fought valiantly in defense of freedom around the world. As peacekeepers in Beirut, Lebanon during the early years of Islamic fundamentalism rising up, a bomb ripped through their headquarters building, killing 220 Marines and 21 other service members in what was the worst loss of life during formal peacetime in the Corps history.

The Marines have continued to fight on, leading the way in America's military battles against the forces of Middle East despotism and radical Islam from the Gulf War through to the ongoing War on Terror theatres in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere.

From those "Halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli", the Devil Dogs of the United States Marine Corps have fought our country's battles in the air, on land, and sea. They fight for right and freedom, to keep their honor clean, in every clime and place where they could take a gun. Here's to their health and to their Corps. Happy Birthday, Marines!

TV Watch: Taking Chance

Every other review that I've done in these 'TV Watch' items has been about a television series, and so HBO's 'Taking Chance' is the first movie-length program that has made the grade.

An official selection of the Sundance Film Festival, this true story is one of the most moving and emotional war films of all-time, yet it contains no more than a couple minutes of actual combat action. Instead, 'Taking Chance' tells the story of two men who never meet in life, but whose paths cross in a most unusual and pivotal manner.

Kevin Bacon plays the starring role of United States Marine Colonel Michael Strobl who served his country well in Operation Desert Storm back in the early 1990's and who then drifted later in his career into an office-type desk job position. Strobl is now an analyst with the Department of Defense, and he struggles with his desk job role, particularly when he passes over an opportunity to serve in Iraq in order to remain home and close to his wife and two young children.

His struggle is that of a former warrior who still feels the call of the battlefield, and the responsibility that only those who have warn the uniform can know. That responsibility is not only for your country or municipality, as those in the military or in other uniformed service such as police officers know, but also to your fellow men and women in uniform.

To put it directly, Strobl wrestles with the idea that he may not have done enough in his career to earn his Marine title. He spends some of his off-duty time searching through the Department of Defense website, scouring the casualty lists to see if anyone that he knows or has a connection with has been injured or killed in battle.

One day as he searches the site he comes across the name of PFC Chance Phelps and notices that Phelps comes from the same small hometown as Strobl himself came from. Strobl feels the call to do something, and volunteers for the mission of escort duty, the person who travels with the deceased body from its arrival on U.S. soil through to the funeral home.

This is the dramatic story of Lt. Colonel Strobl and PFC Chance Phelps, their travel together from Philadelphia to Minnesota to the final resting place at Phelps' family home in Wyoming. It is the story of the emotional reaction of regular people, from airline pilots, ground crew, and service staff to Strobl's fellow passengers, to all manner of regular people along the way who take the time to stop and reflect as they see Chance's body being transported, or as they become aware of Strobl's assignment.

Chance Phelps was inspired, as were many young Americans, to join the military after the attacks of September 11th, 2001. These fine men and women understood that the United States of America is not the product of words on a paper, but is in reality the product of men and women like them who were willing to stand up and fight for freedom and democracy. P

helps was just 19 years old when he was killed in Iraq, but he was highly decorated for such a young man. He was the recipient of the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star with Valor, among a number of other decorations. He was also a wise-cracking young man with an infectious sense of humor which he never lost right up to the day he died.

The folks at HBO put together some of the finest work on television today, and that they bring this kind of quality film to the small screen is no surprise. Kevin Bacon does an outstanding, understated job of somehow in the end relating that his is really the supporting character. It is Chance Phelps who is the star, and the story of Michael Strobl taking Chance home is one that you simply should not miss. NOTE: This is the latest in the 'TV Watch' series, all the reviews of which you can read by clicking in to that below label.

Real American Hero: Jason Dunham

On November 10th, 1775, at Tun Tavern in Philadelphia, what was then known as the 'Continental Marines' was organized directly by the Continental Congress for the Revolutionary War as the on-board force directed to protect the Captain of a naval ship and his officers.

In January of 1783, with the war over, the Marines and the Navy were disbanded. However, a few individual Marines remained as security for the few American naval vessels remaining until, in 1798, the entire institution of both the Navy and the Marines was reconstituted to meet the needs of a pending naval war with France.

Since that time, the Marines have fought in every American military campaign, rising to particular prominence with their efforts in World War II. My own father, Matthew Veasey Jr, was a United States Marine, serving during the time between Korea and Vietnam. My wife's father, Robert Marshall, still living, actually served in the Corps during WWII. They are a part of the great tradition of defending our nation, as are the approximately 194,000 active-duty and 40,000 reserves of today's United States Marine Corps.

As many heroic Marines as there are serving today, and have served in the decades since the end of the Vietnam War, there have been none more heroic than 22-year old Corporal Jason Dunham of Scio, New York. Dunham is the latest Real American Hero to by highlighted here at the website, the only U.S. Marine since Vietnam to be awarded the nation's highest military honor, the Congressional Medal of Honor.

A man who had selflessly served his country and was scheduled to go home, Corporal Dunham had nevertheless extended his service in order to continue on with his group, some of whom told him he was crazy to stay when he was able to go. But Dunham had told them that all he wanted was to do whatever he could "to see that my boys all get home."

As CNN told the story, Corporal Dunham was leading a patrol in the Iraqi town of Karabilah near the Syrian border on April 14th, 2004. The patrol stopped a convoy of cars that was leaving the area of an attack on another Marine convoy. One of the vehicle occupants suddenly attacked Dunham, and the two began a hand-to-hand struggle during which his attacker suddenly pulled a grenade.

Dunham yelled to his fellow Marines "No, no, watch his hand" and the attacker dropped what turned out to be a bomb-type hand grenade near the group. Dunham instinctively hurled himself on top of it, using his helmet to help try to blunt the force of the blast. Dunham was critically wounded as the grenade exploded, dying eight days later at Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland. A member of his group was quoted as saying "He knew what he was doing. He wanted to save Marine lives."

There is no greater love that a man have than he lay down his life for his friends. This is an old motto that encapsulates the split-second decision that Jason Dunham made on that fateful day, the kind of decision that highlights the differences between real heroes and the rest of us.

On April 11th, 2007, President Bush presented Dunham's parents with his Medal of Honor, and in the body of the citation it describes his actions:

"In an ultimate and selfless act of bravery in which he was mortally wounded, he saved the lives of at least two fellow Marines. By his undaunted courage, intrepid fighting spirit, and unwavering devotion to duty, Corporal Dunham gallantly gave his life for his country, thereby reflecting great credit upon himself and upholding the highest traditions of the Marine Corps and the United States Navy."

Michael M. Philips, a writer for the Wall Street Journal, penned Dunham's story in his book "The Gift of Valor: A War Story" which is available through Amazon by clicking into the title of this blog entry.


(NOTE: you will be able to view all the Real American Hero stories by clicking into that below label)