Flags Of Our Fathers

Come December (or early August if things are right) Clint Eastwood is set to release the first of two films based on the Battle of Iwo Jima during World War II. Titled "Flags Of Our Fathers" by author James Bradley's book of the same name, the film revolves around the six U.S. Marines infantrymen captured in the infamous "Rising of the flag on Iwo Jima" photograph (see accompanying picture on the left).

Interestingly enough, Bradley's own father John Bradley was one of the flag-raisers, seen here in the picture as the Marine second from the right. The remaining five in the picture are, from left, Ira Hayes, Franklin Sousley, Michael Strank & Rene Gagnon (both in the background and thus mostly concealed), John Bradley and Harlon Block.

On checking Wikipedia's article, it clearly states that it is not six Marines but rather instead comprised of five Marines and one Navy Corpsman, equivalent to a medic in the European battlefields.

Translated loosely for a World War II-mad young man like me, this movie spells every letter of the word "anticipation" with much drooling and hawing. A few months after, Eastwood is set to release his second film in this series, named "Black Sand, Red Sun", told from the Imperial Japanese army's point of view in order to bring about a balanced, yin-yang storytelling starring Ken Watanabe. Although the Japs were noted for their ruthlessness, this one in particular shows that they were human like their enemy too.

Descriptions about both films are still vague, except that since this is war and war is ugly, expect it not to be a pretty show about good-looking Marines looking forward to going home and getting married to their loved ones. Rather, expect lots of death & dismemberment, cries for their moms, the mourning over the loss of good buddies and the anguished cry of dying men from both sides. War is always hell.

In the meantime, however, perhaps a re-run of Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault will keep me entertained until the movie comes out.

References :-
Flags of Our Fathers by James Bradley

Flyboys by James Bradley

Goodbye Darkness: A Memoir of the Pacific War by William Manchester

The Sands of Iwo Jima starring John Wayne

The Windtalkers starring Adam Beach & Nicholas Cage

The Battle of Blood Island starring Richard Devon & Ron Kennedy

Leave No Man Behind: The Story of Black Hawk Down

Today marks the 12th anniversary of the failed attempt by US Army Rangers and Delta Operators to catch two top lieutenants of warlord Mohamed Farah Aidid in an attempt to quell the famine that was ravaging Somalia at that time and restore order to the stricken country.

About a hundred fifty Rangers and Delta Operators took part in the assault, which went horribly wrong, leading to the downing of two US Blackhawk helicopters and eighteen US soldier casualties, with about seventy-three wounded. The tally for the Somali dead scored past a thousand. The next morning after the ill-fated firefight, mobs of enraged Somalis dragged the corpses of dead American soldiers through the streets of Mogadishu, causing revulsion on the US homefront and prompting President Bill Clinton to call off the mission and withdraw all American servicemen from Somalia. Blackhawk pilot Mike Durant was, however, captured by the SNA militiamen and is the only survivor from the second Blackhawk crash site.

I've read the book, but not before watching the movie of the same name. And believe me when I tell you that not everything you see in the movie is based upon the book. Listed down are a few of the discrepancies that I find slightly not to my liking (might be yours too, I dunno. Just read the book for goodness' sake!)

Discrepancy 01: Sgt. Hoot and Sgt. Sanderson never existed
It's true. Read the book. The above two Delta operators are purely fictional, created for the movie. From what information I could gather, "Hoot" (Eric Bana) was based upon Sgt. Norm Hooten with the cool attitude from Sgt. Macejunas while "Sgt. Sanderson" (William Fitchner) is a mixture of Sgt. Rierson's leadership and Sgt. Paul Howe's anger mismanagement.

Discrepancy 02: Neither did Specialist John Grimes
Another fictional character created to fill in what was actually Specialist John Stebbins the Ranger company clerk, the avid coffee drinker seen offering a cup of Joe to Sgt. Sanderson in the movie. It seems that Stebbins had a problem with the law after the Battle of Mogadishu and I guess the producers didn't want to use his name due to legal reasons I know why of but I won't state here.

Discrepancy 03: Gary Gordon is NOT a blonde
He was a brunette, as was Randy Shughart. Actual pictures from the Net and books show this fact. In the movie however, only Randy was shown to be a brunette while Gary was, well, blonde-haired. However, Randy's character description in the movie still had a vital flaw - the REAL Randy had grey hair around the sides of his head.

Discrepancy 04: Where's Earl Fillmore?
The short, stocky Delta operator who died from a single random bullet to his head, was nowhere to be seen in the movie. In the book, the Americans had to carry his body on a stretcher after he was killed in action, and was moved from place to place until finally they all found temporary refuge in a vacant compound. I often wonder what prompted the producers to leave this part out of the movie itself.

Discrepancy 05: The recoil-rifle technical scene
The scene where the Skinnies are firing their truck-mounted cannon into the Americans' hiding enclavement and subsequently a few of the Rangers led by Delta operator Hooten are seen sneaking behind the Somalis with the aid of NVGs is pure fictional. It never happened. The Rangers and D-boys were so pinned down at the compound they had to take preventive measures from being overrun, let alone venturing out in a short but extremely daring mission. In fact, none of them even brought their NVGs along in the first place.

Discrepancy 06: The crew of Super Six-Four
Although most of the dragged bodies in real-life television shown on CNN were from the second Blackhawk crash site, there was no potrayal of any of the crew members of Super Six-Four in the movie. Given the lives lost around the second Blackhawk crash site, I feel it would only be appropriate to show and acknowledge the men.

Discrepancy 07: Randy and Gordy's ground insert
When Master Sgt. Gary Gordon and Sgt. Randy Shughart's call for the ground insert to protect Super Six-Four was finally approved, we see the both of them hopping out of the hovering helo over a clearing that was probably as big as a football field. In truth, they had to manage a narrow insert as the streets of Mogadishu were kinda crampy. They then had to fight their way across a few blocks of tin shacks and grimy shanties to get to Durant's crash site.

Discrepancy 08: Randy Shughart's last phone call
In the scene where Randy makes a final phone call to his wife back at the States, it shows his call being transferred to the voice recorder and he hangs up just as his wife Stephanie was to answer the call. The time looked around some 1500 to 1700 hours US Time (note the grocery bags carried in Stephanie's arms). Trouble is, Somalia is way East of the US, and logically at that time (15:32 hrs Somalia time) it would have still been night time in the United States.

Discrepancy 09: Leave no man behind
In the movie, we see a beaten-up and exhausted Mike Durant being held captive by the Skinnies and interrogated. Moments later, an AH-60 Little Bird roars overhead the city and broadcasts this message "Mike Durant, we will not leave without you". This did happen in real life, but not on the day of the battle itself, which was Sunday. The people back at the JOC only found out he was still alive much later and the broadcast was only made the following day.

Discrepancy 10: The missing Little Bird helos
When night finally fell and the men of Task Force Ranger were trapped in the above mentioned compound, we hear nothing. Quietness. The silence of the night. In actual fact on that same night, those Little Bird helicopters were continuously doing runs and giving much-needed support for the ground elements, raining brass shells onto the tin roofs each time they did (as taken from the book) while waiting for the Malaysian and Pakistani APCs to arrive.

SOURCES
Black Hawk Down: A Story Of Modern War by Mark Bowden

In The Company Of Heroes by Michael J. Durant & Steven Hartov. Foreword by Mark Bowden

The Battle Of Mogadishu edited by Matt Eversmann and Dan Schilling

Losing Mogadishu: Testing US Policy In Somalia by Jonathan Stevenson