I suggest, respectfully, to watch this very moving story that will air in HBO on Saturday, February 21, 2009 at 8 PM.
It is the journey, in more than one sense, of Lieutenant Colonel Michael R. Strobl - USMC (ret.) who in 2003 "volunteered to escort the remains of Marines killed in Iraq..."
It is the journey, also, of all the people who met Strobl along the way, a journey that we have not experienced thanks to the Bush's White House all but blacking out the video and images of the funerals and ceremonies honoring the troops fallen in combat.
(More below the fold)
Some comments from the "Sundance Festival" review:
"You might presume that yet another film about the war in Iraq couldn't possibly reveal anything new; and that, regardless, you can anticipate its message from what is almost always a cleanly defined ideological point of view: Left or Right, pro- or antiwar, pro-administration or opposed. But you would be wrong. Taking Chance is, without question, one of the most powerful and vital films ever made about Iraq—or, for that matter, the military—and yet its potency comes not from melodramatic or political statements but simply from its reality and execution."
Link for the HBO page:
http://www.hbo.com/...
If interested, this is the narrative, written by Lieutenant Colonel Strobl, more of a personal diary, if you will:
"Taking Chance"
A personal narrative by Lieutenant Colonel Michael R. Strobl
Chance Phelps was wearing his Saint Christopher medal when he was killed on Good Friday. Eight days later, I handed the medallion to his mother. I didn't know Chance before he died. Today, I miss him.
Over a year ago, I volunteered to escort the remains of Marines killed in Iraq should the need arise. Thankfully, I hadn't been called on to be an escort since Operation Iraqi Freedom began. The first few weeks of April, however, had been tough ones for the Marines. On the Monday after Easter, I was reviewing Department of Defense press releases when I saw that a Private First Class Chance Phelps was killed in action outside of Baghdad. The press release listed his hometown as Clifton, Colorado — which is near where I’m from. I notified our battalion adjutant and told him that, should the duty to escort PFC Phelps fall to our battalion, I would take him."
More here:
http://www.cbsnews.com/...