© Vithaya Phongsavan

The wolfdogfilms  team is in Kokopellie Arizona, we will fly  back to Chicago today to get the final copy of the film “The Line of Departure” then head to Washington DC for the screening. We will be in DC May 8th to the 15th, please feel free to join us at the 2011 GI Film Festival.  You can be my VIP guest!

Thank you for all your support. It has been a great year so far for us and for the men and women in uniform and America’s Veterans. After ten years plus, the American pubic will finally get to see the hard work of our servicemen and women in uniform.  It has been a difficult long road for us in uniform and our family. We are very appreciative of our military families, they are our backbone as we go forward to serve our nation.

It has been also hard for our families because they know that they are second in our life.  As service members,  we know Country is always first.  It has always been difficult for me personally as a Sergeant of Marines  to explain to my family and civilian friends about my services. Filmmaking has been an easy way to let my family and friends experience what our service members are doing.

I have been fortunate enough to have a mother who hail from Sierra Leone, West Africa. She currently resides in Chicago, Illinois and she is very big on serving country and community.  My younger brother Mohamed K. Tamba is a veteran of the United States Army and so is my third younger sister Lousia Y. Tamba and will be graduating from College this May.  My second to the last sister  Rosemarie K. Tamba who hailed from Liberia West Africa before she became an American citizen is currently deployed in Kuwait. She is serving in the United states Air Force.   My Youngest sister Nedyiah who is the baby, does not know if she might choose her own United States branch of service in the future.  She is currently thirteen years old and she will start high school next year.

Nedyiah was able to go on a school road trip at our national capital in Washington DC.  She saw the changing of the guard at Arlington National cemetery.  She was told about the story of the men and women whose final resting place is at the Arlington cemetery.  She called me after the classes in Washington DC.  I pick up the phone I saw her phone number and asked her how was the field trip; she said it was going great.  She is using the video camera to document all her experience.

My sister told me out of the blue she knows exactly where she wanted me to be buried. I was a little shock because a thirteen year old don’t normally talk about death.   I was quiet on the end of the line for a moment thinking of my own mortality.  She went on with excitement in her voice ” I want you to be buried at the Arlington National cemetary, and I saw the changing of the guard at the tomb of the unknown soldier”.  I told her that I do not think I rate such an honor, besides I still have a lot of things to do in this world.   I don’t think dying is one of them right now, then she reply ‘but can you think about it, that is what I want for you, as your youngest sister.’ I  told her thank you very much for her love, concern and support, I have lost track of how many time I have left her and my family for another deployment.  I told her thank you for been a wonderful sister and understanding.  The Tamba household  is  a proud military family.

On a second note, I am very delighted that the biggest and only military film festival, THE GI FILM FESTIVAL  starts in two days.  It will start May 9th and ends the 15th 2011.  My family, other military families and our troops appreciates the GI Film Festivals for bringing  our Military sacrifices and stories  on the festival big screens at Washington DC.  The festival is five years old, but it is truly the only festival that is for our troops and the rest of the American public who wants to know the life and hard work of being a serviceman and woman.

I am an infantry rifleman with four tours of duty and will soon be on my fifth soon.  I know the beating my job takes on my body,the fears, dying, losing a limb,  the springs ankle, backache, knees pain, broken bones, foot blisters, all that it takes been an infantry man, a grunt  and the most important of all been apart from my loving family.  It is a price I am eagerly willing to pay because I can never repay what America has given my family and I.

The GI Film Festival is a place to go if you want to hear some of the stories of our troops for all you supporters.  You will not see such stories in our countless America movie theaters, who knows maybe someday. I remain hopefully. I am very proud that I will be visiting the GI Film Festival for the first time this year May 9th – 15th  2011.  I want to tell the GI Founders Brandon Millet and Laura Law  and the GI Film Festival Organizers thank you very much for doing  such a great job.  It is always dangerous to take the road less travel, and you two make me proud as a serviceman.  America I hope to see you all at the GI Film Festival.  My friends that have attended it in the past say it is an experience of a life time.  I am excited that I will be in Washington DC this year for the GI Film Festival.

I am a wholehearted supporter of Nathan’s efforts and I have asked him to share his personal story, which is both heart wrenching and inspiring. I hope you take some time to explore and support his extremely worthwhile effort on behalf of our veterans. The GI Film Festival’s mission is to tell the stories of our nation’s real heroes and Nathan’s mission and personal story exemplify that. As a man and as a soldier, he represents the best of what our country has to offer and his own words follow.  I look forward to seeing all at the film festival this coming week.

Robert Child, Director – The Wereth Eleven

The Frontlines – by Capt. Nathan Tierney

As a boy, my father told me to be a boxer in life.  For every hit, give one back in the form of a selfless act.  This guidance has helped me through hardships, by shifting focus from personal ailments to what I can do for others. Following my third tour to the Middle East, my father’s advice was tested two weeks into yet another overseas tour, when I received notification that my 3 year-old son had passed away. Losing a child upsets the natural order of life, because a parent is simply never supposed to outlive a child. As a father and man, my only child’s death was a crushing defeat in which I was ill prepared; no military training, or words of encouragement could stop me from the spiraling course of self-destructing shame, guilt, helplessness, and depression that I experienced. Stifling thoughts of suicide, abandoning the military, and my family for a nomadic and destitute life took more than intestinal fortitude, and simple desire to continue living; it took direction as found by adhering to my father’s second bit of advice, “Every day be the man and father that your son Joshua can be proud of.”  His advice taped to my door, gave me the missing tool I desperately needed to resurrect myself, chart my course for a continued career in the military, and most importantly begin to once again cherish life.  But what if I had not been given that tool? Would I have become part of the 20% of suicides in the United States being a veteran? Or wallowed in my self-pity and found myself as one of the 105,000 homeless veterans sleeping on our streets each night? The cup of suffering is different for all people, but what you do it that suffering is entirely dependent upon the tools you have in your own proverbial toolbox.

Confronted years later by abnormal biopsy results, I was able to transition to serving in an altered capacity without the self-doubt or loss of direction that had previously derailed me. However, this past July I saw an image that changed my life forever. Coming out the front door of Walter Reed Army Medical Hospital was a young soldier, early twenties in his PT uniform, struggling to put his backpack on… he was struggling because he was a dual amputee. As the young man struggled out the door, alone, and passersby’s starring vs. helping, I wondered what is his story? Why are people not helping him? He had obviously given so much to our country and yet there he walked alone, probably facing a discharge and yet with his whole life ahead of him. Is abandoning our men and women of the armed forces what our nation has come to? Where are his tools?

Inspired by this wounded warrior, I created and launched The Frontlines website this past Veteran’s Day. The mission of The Frontlines is to empower members of the armed forces, veterans, family and friends through a network that provides resources, education and the ability to creatively share their stories. Having seen first-hand the number of our young soldiers at Walter Reed that are less fortunate, I am reminded of our civic duty to take care of those who have selflessly sacrificed so much for our country. Whether you served in peacetime or war, as an infantryman, sailor, pilot or marine, each and every man and woman that has worn the uniform has a story. And unless those stories are told, they will be forgotten. I believe that good storytelling heals the soul. It is a visceral experience between the storyteller and the audience that transcends all cultures, beliefs and nations. Through our stories, shared experience, and insight, we can be boxers, and give a hit back in the form of tools to provide a seamless transition from active duty to veteran status.

No medal or mission has filled me with a greater sense of accomplishment than to advocate for veterans. Though the launch of Frontlines is a significant accomplishment, it is only the beginning step to transform our nation through engagement and support of active citizenship.  I believe we can bridge the divide between military and civilian cultures, through promoting candid conversation regarding the cost of war to our nation and its protectors.  Our brave service members require neither sympathy nor accolades, but rather a supportive environment where voices can be heard in an open, inclusive dialogue.  It is only through preservation and education that our nation will remain great, and can we help our grandchildren understand serving for a cause greater than oneself.

Very respectfully,
Nathan Tierney
CW4, USA
nathan@thefrontlines.com

What is the purpose of art, if that art cannot be experienced by the entire society where it was created because of lack of funding?

I want to create a fund to help promote The Triangle of Death 2.0., a film about the service and sacrifices of our troops in Iraq creating a new democracy in the Middle East. A democracy that is now spreading to other countries, thanks to our service members. The  original film won the founder’s choice award at the GI film festival in 2009 and has since been in distribution hell.

Most of the public response to the film has been positive from veterans and civilians alike who feel that the war has not been covered correctly by main stream media outlets. We hope to use the funding to achieve more press coverage and find distribution. This film is an educational film for all Americans to watch and learn about service and sacrifice. If we do not fight to bring this film to the American public, we will have done great injustice to both the American public and the men and women that are serving our great nation.

It is often difficult for servicemen and women to talk about their experience  in war for fear that it is a hard subject for the civilian and service member’s families to grasp the changes of their love ones,  brothers, husbands, cousins, sisters, fathers, uncles, aunties,  and mothers that went through a war.  It is an experience that only few in our nation our willing to  bear the blunt force of it so others might not experience such hell.

War  changes a man and a women along with their family.  It is sometime a sensitive issue even for institutions in our society especially the notion of post traumatic stress  disorder  because veterans keep war buried deep inside them.  Even when the last gun on the battlefield has long been silence, war still lives in the men and women who met war. War is not neat and clean. It is chaos. It is not easily explained.  To understand the different faces of war, you must meet war to understand it. It has ended world and began sovereign.  It has brought freedom to the oppressed, peace to those in need of it; it is action, complexity, boredom , disorder, fear,  clashing forces, and intimidating.

Triangle of death 2.0  captured all these experiences in this hour and a half documentary film.  We want to screen  and promote the film globally at University campuses, libraries, theaters, states, film festivals, veteran groups and anyone who is looking for understanding and answers  to educated the American public and open dialogue about returning service members in recent conflict and to rise more awareness of the sacrifices of our troops and their families. We want their voices to be heard.

Many Americans say they support the troops or have a bumper sticker of their undying support for the troops. Action speaks louder than words. What have you done for your warriors, veterans, or wounded warriors lately? Sometime the troops and their families need fighting for too, at the home front. They cannot engage and fight all battle without an honest support of the American people.

The money is for the P and A funding to get the film “The Triangle Of Death 2.0 in front of every American audience that has ever show their concern for the troops and the war in Iraq and Afghanistan.  The more Americans can see the services and sacrifices of the men and women in uniform who are constantly in harm’s way from the home front dealing with natural disaster or over sea fighting, the more appreciative and educated the American public will be.

Please help us fund our project so  positive film about real life heroes can be seen by American public and the world. We all have seen heroes– they do not wear capes like the movies, they are modest and honorable individuals. They walk among us unnoticed because they are not Hollywood stars and sport figures. They  are real life flesh and blood who serve our great nation America daily. America endures as long as these men and women are willing to fight for her voluntarily.  Our nation is a free nation because of the few brave. Thank you for your support!

Click here to go to our kickstarter page.

This has been quite a humbling yet extremely proud week in my professional career. I was just notified that I have been made an honorary member of the incredibly heroic USS Franklin (CV-13) crew the most decorated sailors in US Naval history.

Emotions run deep, still today, in the surviving men of the USS Franklin. The carrier, known as “the ship, which wouldn’t die”, survived a direct hit by a Japanese armor-piecing bomb just 40 miles off the coast of Japan in March 1945 and was eventually able to return under her own power to New York for repairs.

The enemy bomb took more then 700 lives in an instant and the ensuing explosions from the Franklin’s own arms stores turned her into a deadly fireworks display that blasted hundreds more men over the side 90 feet into the cold Pacific.

In directing and co-writing the film, USS Franklin: Honor Restored, at the same time I was directing, The Wereth Eleven, I have gotten to know, albeit at a distance, some of the finest men ever to wear the uniform of the U.S. Navy.

The Franklin’s story, the men’s story, had never been told only hinted at in anguished personal accounts captured by author, Joseph Springer, in his book INFERO. Joe and I co-wrote, USS Franklin: Honor Restored, and Joseph Small of the Ardennes Group produced the film to set the record straight.

And the letter I just received the President of the USS Franklin Museum Association, H. Prentice Baptiste, cited this. He wrote, “We wish to extend to you membership as a full fledged crew member of the USS Franklin for your work in setting the record straight of the heroic effort in saving one of the great ships of the U.S. Navy in World War II.”

That, “setting the record straight”, meant revealing the story of the men who hit the water or were transported off the ship unconscious or too wounded to stand becoming known as the “wet soldiers” and the subject of Captain Lesley Gerhes rage. He insisted that no order was given by him to abandon the ship and that any man who had not remained – had deserted his post – no matter what his condition. And Capt. Gerhes instituted a sweeping court marshal.

It went as high up as the Secretary of the Navy, James Forrestal, but all crewmen were eventually cleared of all charges. The shame, however, of being labeled a “deserter” was a burden these proud men continued to carry their entire lives. Several crewmen have stated plainly to my co-writer, Joe Springer, “Now that the story has been told I can die in peace”.

Being named a crewmember of the USS Franklin is the most humbling honor I have ever received in my professional career as it signifies the work I have created has had a profound personal impact in people’s lives.  Not every film has the opportunity to do this but I am grateful and again honored and truly humbled that the effort on behalf of the Franklin’s crew, of which I am now a part, will shortly be seen by the world.  USS Franklin: Honor Restored, narrated by Dale Dye, releases this summer.