Cost

I was driving home from the supermarket the other day, and noticed a guy mowing his lawn. Nothing unusual for a SAT. After I’d passed by, I realized the man had a partial prosthetic arm, too. I noted later in the week the same man getting out of his car after work, in fatigues, likely coming back from his job at the local US Army post.

I’m reminded of cost.

It’s easy to think of of WW2 (and other conflicts) in a removed “academic” way, to think in broad terms about units/actions/leadership choices/materiel. Recently, I read this over at http://www.wildbillguarnere.com and it was posted not long after Band of Brothers first aired on HBO. It’s by Peter Toye, son of Joe Toye, and it is a moving tribute to a father, and the sentiment is also very uniquely _American_ .

One of my most vivid childhood memories was when he’d take my brothers and me camping and put on some trunks to dive in the lake. On his crutches, heading for the beach, I’d walk sightly behind him staring at his scar-covered body — it seemed front to back, head to toe — scars everywhere. Wrist from Normandy; back courtesy Holland; arm, leg, stomach a result of refusing to bend at Bastogne. I’d notice others staring at him as well because he made a formidable sight. But I never thanked him for leaving all that he left of himself in Europe so that we could take vacations like this whenever and wherever we wished. In his own hard and quiet way, he taught us all that it’s never OK to stay down on the mat no matter how much we may feel beaten. You always get back up and you never quit on yourself, NEVER! I can only hope that I have instilled this same 101st Airborne attitude on my children because my old man’s guts and pride courses our veins as well and there is no greater gift.

This quote was researched in the wildbillguarnere.com forums here and there is additional info in the post, specifically a eulogy offered by Richard Winters.

The web site is as advertised: “one of the largest repositories of data regarding World War 2.” There is much to learn there.

The Pacific War, #14

So what do you do when you have no time for anything but work but feel like a post is due? Link to Dale Dye. That’s what you do. His weekly update is as interesting as ever.

I’m particularly impressed with our plans to demonstrate Platoon Sergeant Basilone’s heroics in the fighting on 23-25 October 1942. There will be no doubt in anyone’s mind why he was awarded the Medal Of Honor as a result of that action. The real assets in bringing that fight to the screen are the young performers playing Basilone and his buddies in the heavy weapons company of 1st Battalion, 7th Marines. They are as motivated and aggressive as any I’ve seen so far. Once again, training pays∧ just watching them fix, fire and maneuver those old M1917 water-cooled machineguns is a real treat. I’ve spent a lot of time lately wondering how Manila John and his machinegunners did what the record says they did given the unwieldy and overly complicated nature of those weapons.

The complete entry is here. Back to work for me.

The Pacific War, #13

Saturday, 29 September 2007

If this were a literature course and we were studying the old Freytag pyramid, I’d say this latest entry constitutes some significant rising action. We’ve had a little exposition and are moving steadily toward the climax (though I think we have a ways to go), falling action, and denouement of the production.

Dye’s entry this week focuses on the need to split the production, as we’ve all heard that movies do: out of sequence stuff that that maximizes time and $$.  Dye writes:

The pressure is on us here in Australia as it was on our heroes back in the bloody days of World War II, so we are now going to run two — count ‘em two — separate and simultaneous shooting units to explore the last half of the Division’s epic campaign on Guadalcanal as well as the grueling rain, mud and blood soaked battle of Cape Gloucester. I’ll handle the sequences dealing with 1st Battalion, 7th Marines’ defense of Henderson Field in late October 1942 to the relief of the Division by elements of the U.S. Army’s 23rd (Americal) Infantry Division while Warriors XO Mike Stokey will break out his rain gear and go with 2nd Battalion, 1st Marines to Cape Gloucester in late 1943.

I’d be interested to see (in the DVD features section), the behind the scenes footage on all this.  It sounds like a big deal in terms of coordination and logistics.

The complete entry is here.

The Pacific War, #12

Dateline: September 22, 2007

More from Dale Dye on the product of the work taking place now…

In some of the most spectacular and stirring sequences I have ever seen put on film, we landed on the Orange and White Beaches of Peleliu last week. Much of what I saw on those bitterly opposed landing operations looked just like the still and motion picture images that we have seen from Peleliu back in 1944. It was as vivid and deadly as the stuff we see in the old Movietone newsreels.

Keep in mind, Dye has seen a few: SPR, Band of Brothers to name a few action driven products, and those were pretty good. What is happening now, at least according to Dye, matches the high production value of his previous work, and note his emphasis, that they are “the most…stirring sequences I have ever seen put to film.” Not just war flicks. But film.

The complete entry is here.

The Pacific War, #11

Dale Dye’s update this week is pretty amazing. It sounds as if the production is right in the thick of it all, specifically the “Peleliu invasion which took place in September 1944, 53 years ago almost to the day,” Dye writes. There is more, about Eugene Sledge:

Late last week, we loaded up PFC Eugene Sledge and the other members of his 60mm mortar squad into an LVT-4, putting them to sea for our cameras to catch the pre-invasion jitters just before they hit the beach on the main allied target in the Palau Islands. On Monday we put the first wave of Marines ashore and will bring Sledge and the rest of the second wave onto the bloody sands later in the week. We will spend the whole time on the beach under the blazing guns of the Japanese defenders manning coral and rock bastions in our version of the Umurbrogol Hills. We’ll stay with 3/5 for most of the time in the landing sequences but PFC Leckie and his fellow Marines from 2/1 will also be seen landing on White Beach to the north of the 5th Marines’ sector in some scenes.

The end of this entry is interesting as well. Dye’s enthusiam for the project is showing through, as is his intent to help bring a production to the screen that “show[s] the unmerciful, unrelenting nature of that combat campaign with very few punches pulled.”

The complete entry is here.

The Pacific War, #10

TexasNick over the PacificFans.com forum posted a real gem on this web site recently. They are set photos from the Pacific War series, the first I’ve seen outside of a recent news article.

The photos are hosted via flickr under the name of Rens Spanjaard, and the text is dutch, at least according to babelfish. The translations are a little rough, but they hint at some interesting things. For instance, this one.

The dutch text…

we zijn met een klein groepje 12 mensen squad one baker company ! en staan achter lekkie en van de hoofdrol spelers! de kapitein en onze sergant spelen allebei in band off brother ook heeft die ouwe in die hard en saving private ryan gespeeld ! sniekkie uit me zak genomen hehe

The (very rough) translation…

we are with a small group 12 people squad one nurse company! and stand behind lekkie and of the head role players! the captain and our sergant anticipate both in link off brother also have that ouwe who and saving private ryan played! sniekkie from me pocket taken complete.

Say what? 12 in the squad? Someone from Saving Private Ryan?

Another translation, from the longer post with image.

The dutch text…

we leren marscheren als echte marineers van stafsergents,korprals uit united states mareen corps. ze verwachten van dit stelletje bijelkaar gesprokelde backpackers dat we ons als marineers gedragen die 12 weken bootcamp hebben gehad en zo als jullie meschien weten zijn de marineers de meest getrainde soldaten in de wereld. we spelen achter de hoofdrolspeler lekkie, zijn Bcore en zijn daarmee het tweede belangerijkste team marineers van alle extraS, het is 1942,ergens in august. en we landen in Guadacanal. dit is in de solomon islands.

Dit was een van de ergeste gevechten in de geschiedenis van de marineers de marineers bestaan sinds 1717″ het marsheren leren we omdat ze na deze shoots in port douglas naar melbourne gaan om daar verder te gaan filmen het meeste in de studioS maar ook in de stad zelf.

The (very rough) translation…

we learn as real marineers of stafsergents, korprals from united states mareen corps to marscheren. they expect of this couple bijelkaar gesprokelde backpackers that we as marineers behave themselves those 12 weeks bootcamp have had and this way as your meschien know the marineers be the most trained soldiers in the world. we play team marineers of all extraS behind the head role player lekkie, are Bcore and are with that the second belangerijkste, it are 1942, somewhere in august. and we land in Guadacanal. this are in the solomon islands. This of the ergeste fightings in the history of the marineers the marineers had been existed since 1717 to top lords to learn we because they will after these shoots in port douglas to melbourne there further will film it most in the studioS but also in the city himself.

How is this guy not fired from the production? Not that I mind seeing photos of the production and all. There are 8-10 set photos via flickr. Babelfish.com will translate (roughly), if there aren’t any dutchmen handy.

The Pacific War, #8

Dateline: Sunday, 2 September 2007

Dale Dye has posted another Pacific War update, and the details keep getting better and better.

PFC Leckie and his .30 caliber heavy machinegun crew proved that the old Browning water-cooled weapon can still sustain long periods of fire without over-heating or jamming despite blustery on-shore winds that carried packets of sand into all our weapons. Our Marines did what Marines always do when they had a spare moment or a lull in the action: They cleaned their weapons.

Up next: the Battle of Bloody Ridge. The complete entry is here.

The Pacific War #7

Dateline AUG 25, 2007–

Dale Dye has posted an update on The Pacific War project, now filming in Australia. He writes:

It’s hot and muggy here in tropical North Queensland just as it was on Guadalcanal back in August 1942. We’ve managed to sweat our way through a second week of filming on this epic and are just about to begin night shoots. That’s grueling on everyone, but a glance up at the night sky to see the Southern Cross hanging over us just as it did over the men who fought on the awful island during World War II is an inspiration.

Much of the entry here details the attention to detail of the production staff in making this series visually authentic…one viewers won’t soon forget. And that’s good to see, and it’s something Dye has been writing about for the last few weeks…about doing the kind of job that will be memorable in honoring those who fought and died there.

In closing his post, Dye suggests that the setting is as good as they can make it: “Sitting behind the sights of an M-1917A1 water-cooled machinegun or looking over the splatter shield of a 37mm cannon, it’s not hard to believe you are actually on Guadalcanal at that moment in time. And at night, under flare-light, it’s even spookier.”

I feel like a kid at Christmas, though we’ll have to wait until 2008 (or later) to see this on HBO.  Read the entire post here.

The Pacific War, #6

TexasNick over www.pacificfans.com posted a link to a beach landing for the Pacific War series, now filming in Australia.

Source: http://www.pacificfans.com/production-news/first-picture-from-the-set

I would love to link up to this, but alas. Visit the link above, read the article, and check out the picture. Sadly, there is only one, and it’s not that big. This section of the article caught my eye:

Rocky Point residents yesterday told of waking to the blood-curdling screams of an invasion.

“It’s not too bad,” said local Angela Pringle, who lives just metres from the beachfront film set.

“If I close my windows I can’t hear the bombs or screams or anything,” she said.

Location manager Nick Daubeny said special attention had been paid to details.

“The minute we lose the authenticity, the suspension leaves the viewers and I think that’s what really made Band of Brothers,” he said.

Angela! Get your backside over there with a camera and take some pix and put them up for the rest of us who’d liked to see a little more.

Dale Dye has a new entry as well, dated AUG 18. He writes about the progress of filming:

I had a few General A.A. Vandegrift moments this week when we brought five period LCVPs ashore in an assault line and watched the bow ramps splash down to disgorge about 200 World War Leathernecks. What a rush something like that is for an old Marine warhorse!

The complete entry is here.

The Pacific War, #5

Okay, this is a total poach…but what the heck.

Over at the new www.pacificfans.com forum, it looks like there is a cast member from the Pacific War mini-series, now filming in Australia. A gentleman named “schmoopy” posted this updated cast list via imageshack. The direct link to this thread is here.

This recent link details more dated cast news.

It’s good to see a Pacific War web site back “on the job.” About two weeks ago, this search term appeared on the stats sheet for this blog.

“the pacific war forum site close”

I’d hadn’t surfed in to the forum of late and wondered, could it really be be gone? And it’s true; it’s gonzo. I’m sure there is some backstory there. I do know this: the new pacificfans.com is run by TexasNick and moderated by MrBassbone, so the same duo who built up old site is building this new site, and it looks like a winner. Check it out.