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