Thursday, May 21, 2009

May 20th: California, Day 14

It's the end of day 14, and we are actually still in Arizona. We slept in until 0700 today and after a quick breakfast, we went to work on the computers. We spent all day editing, and we now have a great set of clips that we can use for submission to grant programs, including the upcoming Independent Film Week Spotlight on Documentaries, which is run by our fiscal sponsors, the Independent Feature Project (www.ifp.org). Editing is grueling work-- we have gone non-stop for 17 hours, but we got done what we needed to get done.

We will be done on the west coast soon, and although we have been here only a few weeks, it feels like forever. Adam found out today that his youngest daughter took her first steps while he was here helping us on the film. His wife sent him pictures. Brian's son began crawling, and he is already trying to walk. While we all feel that this project is incredibly important, these two guys and their families are really sacrificing a lot to make sure the film is made and the story of The Chosin Few is told. But if we don't do it, who will?

It's now 0151. Brian and Adam have been racked out for about an hour, and we all need to get up at 0330 for a 5-hour drive into Los Angeles for a couple of meetings. It never stops, and I wouldn't want it to. Time for a quick nap.

S/F
Anton

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

May 19th: California, Day 13

Brian was featured on "The Story" Dick Gordon on NPR today. You can listen to the interview at www.thestory.org. The episode was titled "Making the Transition" on the May 19th broadcast. Brian talked about his transition from the Marine Corps to working as a filmmaker, as well as starting his own production company and making "The Chosin Few." Check it out.

Today marks our last day of shooting in California. We finished up in San Rafael yesterday and stopped by the Downs' house for one last home cooked meal. They had thrown us an impromptu birthday party on the night of the 17th (Adam and I both have our birthday on that day, and Brian's is next week). Phil and Debbie really made us feel like family for the weekend. Thanks guys.

After we finished shooting last night, we caught a quick nap and then departed at 8pm for a 13-hour drive to Arizona for our last interview. We met with a gentleman by the name of Ed who served with the Army's 31st Regiment in Korea. Ed's unit was surrounded by three divisions of Chinese in the east side of Chosin Reservoir. After five days of holding off the enemy, the regiment was almost completley out of ammunition and began a withdraw with all of their dead and wounded. Led by LtCol Don Faith, the 31st fought their way through multiple Chinese ambushes and road blocks. Faith was killed during the battle and posthumously awarded the medal of honor.

Adam, Brian, and Ed (K Company, 31st Regiment)

After the convoy was ambushed and halted, the Chinese Communist Forces burned all of the wounded alive in the back of the trucks. To make a long story short, Ed miraculously survived after being shot in the head, beaten, and left for dead with no winter clothing in 40-below temperatures. He made his way to the ice on the reservoir where he was saved by LtCol Beale and some other Marines who had driven through enemy lines in jeeps to recover as many survivors from the 31st as possible. We spent almost three hours talking with Ed and we were honored to be welcomed into his home today.

Well, we have some editing to do tomorrow so that we can submit our project for a grant from our fiscal sponsor, the Independent Feature Project, then we have a few meetings in LA on Thursday before getting on a plane back to the East Coast on Friday.





S/F
Anton

Sunday, May 17, 2009

CATCHING UP May 17th: California, Day 11




Adam and Brian crew in



Brain and James Bodack (2/7)

It's been a loooong couple of days. We finished up in Pasadena on the 14th around 1800 (6pm for all the civilian types) and got on the road towards Sacramento. We reached our destination around midnight, and two of Brian's friends, Mac and Lisa, put us up for the night. Mac was a Navy Corpsman and was awarded two Purple Hearts and a Bronze Star for his service with 1st Battalion, 4th Marines in Vietnam. We stayed up for awhile telling war stories over a few beers , and in true Marine fashion, we were all calling Mac "Doc" by the end of the night.

Lisa, Anton, Brain, and Mac ("Doc")

We had a great day of inteviews at the Fair Oaks VFW on the 15th, but Adam had to build another table fort out of banquet tables to help absorb some of the background noise coming from the bar area. We also had three of our six interviews cancel on us due to some last minute emergencies, but Gus Vaseldenos (5th Marines) filled in last minute and came down to meet with us. We had a great time and then we had to get back on the road to Lafayette, just east of San Francisco.

Cliff Blakely (C-1-7), Anton, and Gus Vazeldenos (7th Marines)

Phil Downs, a Marine Officer who served with Brian in Iraq with 2/5, is from the Lafayette area. His parents, Phil and Debbie, welcomed us into their home and made a fantastic home made dinner for us. It was much welcomed after living off of fast food for most of our trip.

We've continued to be humbled by the men that we have interviewed over the last few days. One amazing part of most of these conversations is that they keep telling us how proud they are of us-- the current generation of Marines. We look up to these guys as our heroes, Marines who set the bar for combat excellence and defined what it means to be a Marine. We look back at the history of our Corps so that we know the legacy we must uphold, whether we are fighting a war, conducting humanitarian operations over seas, or just going for a PT run. Our history is what drives us forward and won't allow us to ever quit. To hear even one of these gentlemen tell us that they are proud of us means everything-- that, in their eyes, we have upheld the reputation of our Corps and upheld the legacy of the "Old Breed."

We've got one more day of filming in San Rafael tomorrow, then we have a long drive to Prescott, Arizona for an interview with a gentleman who fought with the Army on the east side of the Chosin Reservoir. More on that story later.

S/F
Anton

Thursday, May 14, 2009

May 13th: California, Day 7

My cousin Dave let us crash at his place in West Hollywood. When I was stationed in 29 Palms, I used to make one last stop in LA everytime I deployed to Iraq, and Dave always made sure that I had a great time. We got up around 6am and drove out to Pasadena to shoot.
The American Legion in Pasadena opened its doors for us today. We had to work through some sound issues again, but we've gotten pretty used to coming up with creative solutions. Adam built what looked like a defensive perimeter around the set by stacking up tables to block out unwanted sound from the bar next door.

Adam's maze of tables

We had the honor of meeting with Bob Licker today, a Marine who fought with Able 1-7 at Chosin. He was also the national president of The Chosin Few at one time. Bob was one of the "Ridgerunners" who fought their way to Fox Hill to relieve Fox Company 2/7. If you don't know the story, check out the book The Last Stand of Fox Company. Their fight was on par with the story of the 300 Spartans at Thermopylae. The book is fantastic and I highly recommend it.

Navy Corpsman Don Lyon (2/5) and Anton


Brian and James Bodack (7th Marines)
Long day tomorrow. Four interviews tomorrow and then we have a long drive up to Sacramento.
S/F
Anton

May 12th: California, Day 7

We got a decent night's sleep and finished filming in Orange. We grabbed some cheap tacos for dinner and then drove north into Los Angeles. We hung out at Barney's Beanery for a couple of beers and made a few new friends, including filmmaker Jake Rademacher. Jake's documentary film, Brothers at War, is going to be released this month. Jake has two brothers who served with the Army in Iraq, and he went over to tell their stories. Check out the website for the film at www.brothersatwarmovie.com.

We kind of tied one on tonight so tomorrow morning is going to be rough. Time to get some sleep.

S/F
Anton

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

HOLD FAST May 11th: California, Day 6


Howard Mason, Able Company, 1/7

We finished filming around 1800 today and headed over to Laguna Beach for some Thai food in Brian's old neighborhood. He lived there for a time when he was still stationed in California. We managed to find a reasonably priced hotel for the night. Adam synced up all of the audio and video that we shot today and hit the rack. Brian is doing some light editing right now and I have been catching up on e-mails. The press has done a great job of covering our project and it's starting to feel like I need to hire an intern to help me keep up with all of the e-mails and phone calls. I can't complain though-- being busy is good.

Larry Kerzman (B-1-11), Brian, and Doug Stout (7th Marines)

Things went well today. John Whiteriver, the president of American Legion Post 132 in Orange, is our host for the next few days. John is a Marine who fought at Inchon in Korea. We've really lucked out on this trip so far-- John is one of a number of Marines that we have met that have made our project possible through their selflessness. I probably shouldn't be surprised-- Marines always take care of Marines-- but I am always humbled by their willingness to help us out when we are in a jam.
Ahn, Brian, Howard, and Anton

Ahn was back on the set, and, as always, he did a great job on the cameras. We had a lot of challenges with background noise today, but Adam made sure that all of our audio came out sounding damned near perfect. We really are lucky to have a such a crew of consumate professionals.

Brian on set

Good interviews today, too. Jack Stites, the president of the Colonel William Barber chapter, met with us. He has done a lot to connect us with the members of his chapter. We have another full day of interviews with these gentlemen tomorrow, then we will continue our march north to Pasadena.
S/F
Anton

Monday, May 11, 2009

May 10th: California, Day 5


We finished up our last day of filming in the Vista/ Oceanside area, and our departure was bittersweet. We are excited to move forward to the other veterans we will be meeting this month, but we had an amazing time throughout the weekend with Colonel White and the rest of the General Raymond Murray chapter. The good Colonel and his lovely wife Paulette went above and beyond by allowing us to set up shop in their house for the whole weekend in order to interview everyone that we had scheduled. They really went out of their way to make us feel like family. We couldn't possibly thank them enough.
The film was featured on the front page of the North County Times Sunday edition, and Colonel White was the star. There is also a short video on the page. You can read the article here:

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2009/05/10/military/zd0a6d157fc697fcc882575ae00788685.txt

We've got a long day tomorrow. We will be up bright and early to drive from Escondido to Orange for a 0800 crew call at American Legion Post 132. We don't have a place to sleep yet, but we will figure it out. Mission first.
S/F
Anton

Sunday, May 10, 2009

May 9th: California, Day 4



We attended the event honoring the Chosin Few at San Diego Naval Base today. There was a full crowd and we met veterans who lived as far away as Arizona. Capt Smith and the crew of the USS Chosin put together an outstanding event and we had a great time. Rick Rogers of the San Diego Union-Tribune also wrote up a great article on our project and the veterans involved. The article made the front page of the region section in what is the largest paper in the San Diego area. You can check out the article here:

http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/may/09/1m9docu021134-honoring-chosin-few/

Jack Stites, Frank Torres, and Bob Licker, members of the Colonel William E. Barber chapter of The Chosin Few, presented a replica of the friendship bell to Capt Smith. The replica is one of two in existence, and it was originally presented to Colonel Barber (the CO of Fox Company, 2/7) by the president of South Korea. Jack and the other members of the chapter knew that the sailors of the USS Chosin would ensure the safe keeping of the bell and felt that it only seemed right to have the bell travelling the high seas on the vessel that bared their namesake.


Also, Bob Weishan and the San Diego Chapter presented a large haul of Tootsie Rolls to the crew. Tootsie Rolls have been a part of Chosin lore because most of the Marines and Sailors ate nothing else but Tootsie Rolls as they fought their way from the reservoir to Hungnam. All other food was frozen solid, but the candies would easily thaw out in their mouths. There has never been a real explaination as to why all of the crates of Tootsie Rolls were air dropped to the Marines, but one of the vets I talked to suggested an explaination. He told me that the words"Tootsie Rolls" were sometimes used as a code word for "bullets" over the radio when asking for a resupply, and that possibly a radio operator took the words literally when recieving a resupply request for ammunition.



As the ceremony came to an end, Brian realized that a member of the Marine Corps color guard at the ceremony was a Marine who was a member of Brian's platoon in G/2/5. They had a chance to catch up and talk afterwords. It really is a small Marine Corps.



We took the rest of the afternoon to tighten up logistics for the second half of our trip and we will get our first solid night of sleep since we left New Jersey. We've been getting 3-6 hours a night since we arrived, so it will be nice to recharge our batteries.

S/F

Anton

May 8th: California, Day 3

Another fantastic day of interviews. Col Jean White and his wife Paulette invited us into their home to conduct all of our filming this weekend with the men of the General Murray Chapter of The Chosin Few. All of the VFWs and American Legions were booked for meetings and Mothers' Day breakfast events this weekend, so we would have been stuck without a location if the White's had not offered their help. We cannot thank them enough.

We will be taking a short break from interviews tomorrow in order to attend an event at the San Diego Naval Base. The USS Chosin will be in port, and they are having a ceremony and barbecue to honor the Chosin vets. There will be five chapters represented, so we are looking forward to meeting everyone.

S/F
Anton

Friday, May 8, 2009

May 7th. California: Day 2

Today was a long one. We interviewed another five veterans, a few of which served long careers in the Corps. One gentleman, Colonel Patton, was an artillery officer at Chosin. He also served as his battalion's meterological officer, which made him responsible for recording air temperatures and windspeeds so that each battery knew how much powder they would have to use when they fired their guns. Colonel Patton told us that on one night, he recorded the temperature at -60 degrees Fahrenheit. With the brutally strong winds that night, he calculated the temperature to be -120 degrees Fahrenheit with wind chill. I can't imagine walking in weather like that let alone fighting through the night in those temperatures.

The day went well over all. Anh Nguyen, a Marine and graduate of the Wounded Marine Careers Foundation, helped on the cameras with Adam. He did a fantastic job and also took the initiative to get us a lot of b-reel footage in between takes. After we were finished, we drove north to Brian's sister's house near Vista. She gave us a place to crash for the night, but by the time we grabbed a quick dinner, finished backing up our work for the day, and synced all of the sound, we didn't get to bed until after midnight again. Coffee and energy drinks have been flowing like water.

We start filming in Vista tomorrow at LtCol Jean White's house. He is a member of the Chosin Few who served in Korea and Vietnam.

S/F
Anton Sattler

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

California: Day 1


Brian, Adam, and I landed in sunny San Diego yesterday afternoon. We spent the day getting all of our gear together and we had a chance to touch base with Tim at the Wounded Marine Careers Foundation, which is a program that trains wounded Iraq and Afghanistan war vets for careers in film and media. We are working with several graduates of the program while we are out here and it was great to meet some of the people behind this fantastic organization.

We started filming today at American Legion Post 6 in San Diego. Things went well, but we had to fight through some technical difficulties. A few of the files recorded by our cameras would not download properly, but we found a temporary fix and moved forward. We have some work to do tonight to figure out the issue.

Frank Manthei, the president of American Legion Post 6, is letting us use the facilities at the post for our interviews in San Diego. In terms of sound quality, this has been one of our best locations. This is probably the first time that Adam has not had his hair falling out of his head because the microphones were picking up the backround noise caused by traffic or people talking outside. Not that Adam has any hair because he gave himself a haircut with some electric clippers yesterday. I now am officially the only member of the crew who is not bald.

We've got some work to do, so I'm going to sign off for now.

S/F
Anton Sattler

Monday, May 4, 2009

We're off to California

This week has been crazy. We were short on planning time, but we got everything done. We've got shooting locations set for eight different cities and we'll be interviewing between 60-75 veterans over the next two-and-a-half weeks. I'll still be making plenty of phone calls on the road to finish booking vets for interviews, though. It was physically impossible to do it all in the time we had this week.

Brian had reserve drill this weekend and went to the field to make sure that his Marines were prepared for their upcoming deployment. He just got back home yesterday in time to see his son sit up for the first time (and he's already standing on his own 24 hours later!) I'm sure he's still finishing up last minute preparations like I am. This reminds me of going to the field or getting ready for an operation in Iraq-- awake all night, thinking everything over to make sure you didn't forget any deatail. Re-checking your gear to make sure you've got what you need. I've got to be up in just 2 hours to head to the airport. Better get a quick nap. This month is going to be hectic and exciting.

S/F
Anton