Take a moment to pause today, Take a moment to look at those images again, Take a moment to Never Forget.
Monthly Archives: September 2007
Still Venting
Since I also write for the VA Mortgage Center blog I don’t like to duplicate stories too much between the two. Since they pay me, the ones I write for them are essentially their copyrighted property anyway.
I write on a wide variety of topics for them, just as I do for my own site…even though they are all military related. Anyway, I just wanted all to know that so you would know why I do posts like this one which point you to their site whenever I write a new and unique one for them.
So Check out my latest blog entry for them at: www.vamortgagecenter.com/blog/2007/09/06/get-informed/
Latest Update from Scott Kesterson on The Forgotten War project
I got a surprising call from an old friend today, Scott Kesterson. I had not talked to Scott since I guess it was March. We had emailed some, but not heard each other’s voices since we were drinking coffee in Kabul, Afghanistan together. He has been sending out updates on his documentary that I have talked about on here before. Today we talked more about it and how well it is coming along. He promises it to be like no documentary seen before and I believe him. I asked him if I could post on my blog here, the updates that he sends out weekly about the film’s progression. He told me it was no problem and thanked me for the increased publicity. So, with no further a due here is the latest dispatch from Scott on the documentary’s progress.
Subject-driven storytelling
allowing the truth of the moment to speak
By Scott Kesterson, Copyright 2007
I reached between the seats of the truck for another
can of “Rock Star.” It was now close to 3am as I drank
my fourth can of the Taurine based energy drink in less
than three hours. The trip to Austin, Texas was one of
those down-and-back, same night exploits for the purpose
of securing the release of music from an Indie band
we had been introduced to. Seven hours of driving, a 30-
minute meeting, and a pending agreement that brought
us one step closer to a musical composition that added
the desired dimension to the visual experience that was
evolving on our editing screens.
Documentary films, like most films, are usually created
from a script. The creative direction is established
first, and the footage is then captured that will fit the
needs of the story’s vision. The process is a time honored
practice of filmmaking, bringing to the viewing audience
an experience that begins and ends with the filmmaker’s
script.
The Forgotten War film is different. Breaking from past
trends, it is based on subject- driven storytelling that
allows the truth of the moment to speak without the
interference of personal bias. There was no script;
rather, the filming was grounded in witnessing the
experiences as they evolved over time. It is based on the
tenets of ethical photojournalism with the constant requirement for context to better understand the truths.
The goal being to ultimately assure ourselves that we
have been as fair and accurate in the way the story has
been told, to include mood and feel. As I pulled into the driveway, the first glimmers of dawn could be seen on the
horizon. My thoughts took me back to one of the many
mornings awaking in the rural landscapes of Afghanistan.
A world thousands of miles from where I sat in that
moment, yet seemingly so close that all I had to do was
close my eyes to see. A waking dream of sorts, bringing with it the many sites, sounds and smells that could not be conveyed by images alone. The music began to play. The images raced by. The feelings’ of the moments stirred from deep within. I knew then we were one step closer to our goal. www.forgottenwarfilm.com
SH!^ Happens
“Only those that have put their life on the line get to second guess a soldier in the field”
It is a quote on a poster that is profiled on the Military Motivator website. How does the F@#%$#@% ACLU think it has a right to publish a report about rights violations by soldiers. How do they know what it is like? How do they know the whole situation? They don’t, they won’t and they never will. I am steaming mad after reading this article on the FoxNews.com website about the ACLU report which is over 10,000 pages long.
They looked at court transcripts and other official documents to analyze the soldier’s actions and essentially come up with a slamming report on the service members that are proudly serving on the front lines today. Of course the ultra-right MSM (main stream media) will be all over this and somehow spin this around again.
The reality is that people make mistakes and make bad choices. Whether it is a nice guy who decides to try and risk driving home after one too many drinks at a office happy hour, a driver who swerves left instead of right when a dog runs in front of him and that causes him to get into a head-on crash or a soldier who under the stress of combat puts a well-aimed killing shot into a possible enemy only to find out later it was an innocent.
Shit happens, and as just about anyone can attest to, in a stressful situation you don’t have the luxury to sit back and weigh consequences with outcomes with courses of actions. You also don’t always make the best decision and sometimes later in self-reflection you may not even know why you made the decision you did. Well Shit really happens in combat, and as I have talked about many times on this blog during my tour in Afghanistan, there are moments where time stands still. These moments are mere seconds in duration, yet feel like minutes or hours. It is during these moments that a person has to rely on training, instinct, muscle memory, faith, values, beliefs and the grace of God to guide them to the right choice. In two wars I have had multiple distinct incidents happen to me that could have changed my life forever depending on which way I chose. In both the Persian Gulf War and the war in Afghanistan I was presented with situations where if I would have made one choice versus the other that I could have killed innocents and worse yet fellow American soldiers. These moments still bother me today and haunt me when something happens that reminds me of them.
This is the reason why I am so passionate about this subject. How dare anyone, and I mean anyone (not just the ACLU that I detest), sit back in their comfortable lifestyles with no idea of real stress, no idea of what it is like to watch your life flash in front of your eyes based on an enemy’s actions, and no idea of true discomfort judge me, or any service member and our decisions.
Recently all but one of the Marines involved with the Haditha incident have been exonerated, and it is believed that the last one will also be exonerated soon. This incident was all over the news last year and made major headlines as the ultra-right and bleeding-heart liberals just pounced on them, the Marine Corps and the overall Military. Well now that the Military justice system is finding that none of the Marines did anything wrong and were only following procedure, you don’t see on thing in the news about it. I was asked by friends, co-workers (military) and others about my opinion during the time it was all over the news and I stated then that from what I could see I would do the same thing the Marines did and I think they followed the TTPs (tactics, techniques, and procedures) correctly. Again I only knew what I read in the blogs and saw on the news. I could have been wrong had different information came out later, but I am glad to see that I wasn’t. I am glad to see that for the most part all of the information that came out was fairly accurate and that I was correct in my judgment.
Service members make mistakes, and taking into account the situation, guidance given and other factors they maybe should be punished or not. Just like that guy who gets a DWI for driving home from the office party or the guy that kills someone in another car because he swerved to miss a dog on the road. We are all accountable for our actions and sometimes a simple lapse in judgment or being a “nice” guy does not relieve us of that responsibility.
However it is until the day that you walk in the boots of those that you wish to judge should you be given the right to do such a thing. Until that day, how about just STFU.