What on EARTH is that flag?

Have I ever talked about how much I absolutely loooove watching movies? I really don’t think there’s a better way to relax for a couple hours (with your eyes open) than to sit and watch a really good movie. I’ve seen a lot of them, all different kinds, cause I like just about anything. I also think watching a movie can be very therapeutic to a mood we might be having. Movies have lots of ups and downs and twists, maybe some puzzling plot points to make you think a little bit, we laugh and cry, and we revel at the breakthrough advances being made with visual effects. Heck, sometimes the dialogue and plot of a movie don’t need to be any good at all, so long as the special effects and graphics are awesome!

Emotion is a word I use a lot when talking about movies, because all the senses are stimulated when watching a good movie with a good story. And timing is no mistake, usually, when we see movies at the theatre, or on TV. Christmas movies will (normally) be shown around… you guessed it… Christmas, and other holiday movies shown near their respective calendrical tribute. War movies… now there’s a really big genre. Not just movies about wars, but movies about Military branches, or having something to do with US history, military history, or inner workings of armed forces… now that’s a list that can go on for days and days. I saw a couple movies on TV recently, and I realized that seeing them at this time of year was not necessarily a random accident. These military stories are being shown to coincide with Veteran’s Day, which is coming up in just a little over a week (November 11). I’ve only seen a few of these military movies in the last week or so, it’s not like seeing A Christmas Story for 24 straight hours on Christmas or anything, but the few I saw were very influential on me. And, if you haven’t figured it out by now, I’m gonna tell you why… here we go…

The Laste Caste

The first film I saw about a week ago was The Last Castle with Robert Redford. This isn’t a war movie or anything inspired by a real life event. In actuality it shows a side of the armed forces you don’t often see or think about, as the story takes place in a military prison. Okay, major downer. I know, right… where am I going with this… I was all pumping you up about great war movies and now i’m talking about jail! I’m not gonna rehash the whole plot, but I did want to tell you about a part of the movie that deals with our American Flag. A pretty big part of the movie’s plot involves the flag. Long story short: the warden of the jail has an American Flag in a decorative case, and the flag is stolen by a prisoner (Robert Redford!!!) who’s intention is to fly it upside down in the exercise yard. As you are full aware, I am a stickler for the rules, so I must tell you that you should never do that, because flying our colors upside down has particular meaning, and that is as a signal of distress. It’s in the US Flag Code:

“The flag should never be displayed with the union [blue and white star field] down, except as a signal of dire distress in instances of extreme danger to life or property.”

So, it’s not that doing it would be wrong, because there may be a time that calls for the American Flag to be flown upside down, but it would see viewed as disrespectful and most inappropriate for any other reason. Anyway, because I talk often about history, and many times about our colors, I thought this movie was an interesting one to tell you about. Now, I didn’t give the whole thing away. In fact I hardly told you anything about it. So, if you’re curious, I can confidently endorse this movie as entertaining, and recommend you see it.

Saving Private Ryan

Okay, this next movie was very, VERY moving for me. I cried lots and lots, and then I started thinking lots and lots, and I was like, wait a minute, I feel like heard this one before. So… I watched Saving Private Ryan with Tom Hanks and Matt Damon. Tom Hanks, by the way, I also a HUUUUUGE history buff, and he’s responsible for the Band of Brothers miniseries. That’s another war genre story. Not gonna talk about it now, but you should see that, too! The movie is set around the June 6, 1944 Normandy Invasion by Allied Forces during World War II, and there is no mistaking the emotions felt by viewers that this movie intended to summon. The film opens with an old man and his family who are visiting the grave site of a soldier. The cemetery in the film is an actual site and is rather significant to memorials. I’ll tell you more about it in a few minutes. Anyway, from here, the story flashes back to June 6, 1944: Omaha Beach. Gunfire and explosions surround us as Allied Forces are landing on troop carriers from the sea. For the first 20 minutes it looks as if we’re watching actual war documentary footage of a raging, bloody battle that immediately sets the tone and mood for the remainder of the film. As the story develops, we learn that three brothers fighting in WWII have all died within days of each other, and their mother is about to be visited by the Army to receive the news. What’s more, their is a fourth brother, Private James Ryan, who is serving in Normandy, and supposedly MIA. The Army springs in to action and dispatches a company, led by Tom Hanks’ character (Captain Miller) with orders to find Private Ryan (Matt Damon) and deliver him safely. This is a most emotional film, and while it is a work of fiction set against historical events, there are hints of truth to the plot. There were several instances of brothers losing their lives in active duty while in the service of their county. Saving Private Ryan is said to loosely parallel the story of the The Niland Brothers. The Niland’s were four American brothers from Tonawanda, NY (a suburb between Buffalo and Niagara Falls), who all served during WWII. Of the four, two survived the war, but there was time it was believed that only had survived. It was later discovered that a second surviving Niland brother was held captive in a Japanese POW cam in Burma.

USS The Sullivans

You may find this immensely ironic, but there is in fact another equally dynamic parallel to Saving Private Ryan. The irony is that it also has ties to the Buffalo, NY region. In Buffalo, at the foot of the Erie Canal Harbor, is a small Naval Park, complete with a museum of ships, military vehicles, and a veterans memorial honoring soldiers from the region. The significance to Saving Private Ryan is one of the sea vessels in the museum; a destroyer class Navy ship named, The Sullivans. The USS The Sullivans was named in honor of the five brothers who lost their lives when their ship, the USS Juneau, was sunk by a Japanese submarine during the Battle of Guadalcanal on 13 November 1942. Unlike Saving Private Ryan, or the real-life story of the Niland brothers, none of the Sullivan brothers survived. This was the greatest military loss by any one American family during WWII. One summer, once upon a time, My family took a vacation up north to see Niagara Falls. We had to pass through Buffalo, NY, and while driving on the highway I could see the ships in the water. I begged my dad to stop the car so we could see the Naval Park. As part of a tour, me and my family walked on-board the USS The Sullivans, and heard the amazing, and tragic, story of the Sullivan brothers.

The Navy had a policy of separating siblings, but this was not strictly enforced. Because the Sullivan’s were not drafted, but instead voluntarily enlisted for service in the Navy, the five brothers from Iowa stipulated that they serve together, and all five were assigned to the USS Juneau. Nine months after their assignment to the USS Juneau, it was sunk by the Japanese during the Battle of Guadalcanal. We learned during our tour that Destroyers are named for naval heroes and leaders, and that the name of this ship, “The Sullivans,” had historically caused confusion cause the Navy doesn’t use the “the” in front of ship names. In this particular instance “the” is part of the ship’s name, signifying more than person. The USS The Sullivans that we toured in the Buffalo Naval Park was put in to service in 1944 toward the end of WWII, and was decommissioned in 1965. However, the name of the ship and the memory of the Sullivan brothers lives on… in 1997 the Navy commissioned a new destroyer, DDG-68, and named her USS The Sullivans. To wrap up the story on the Sullivan brothers, the United States War Department sprung in to action with the future intent to prevent any family from suffering a similar catastrophic loss by enacting the Sole Survivor Policy: a set of regulations designed to protect members of a family if they have already lost family members in military service. While I said “wrap up,” there’s a whole lot more you could know about the Sullivan’s, including a museum wing in Waterloo, Iowa dedicated to the fallen heroes. If you’re interested in this gripping story, just do a Google search! You’ll find all kinds of info.

View of the Cemetery from Memorial

Earlier, when I was getting in to the plot about Saving Private Ryan, I mentioned a military cemetery. The cemetery in the opening scene of the movie is The Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial, and it is a WWII cemetery honoring American soldiers who died in while serving in Europe. What’s important about this site is that it was the first American WWII cemetery established on European soil. Remembered at The Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial are 9,387 American soldiers, and over 300 unknown. While many are buried here, the bodies of 1,557 Americans who served and lost their lives could not be located. The names of those who could not be returned are inscribed on the walls of a semicircular garden memorial.

I think it is most important that, while we prepare to observe Veterans Day this November 11th, when we take a moment to reflect on all of the men and women, both of whom are here today, and especially those no longer with us. For those who fought for our freedom and way of life, we take a moment to recognize those soldiers who are memorialized abroad, while with us in our hearts and spirits, are not with us on our home soil, the land for which they fought. It is this exact reason I delved in to the “Private Ryan” story, and capped it here with The Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial. What’s more, while this memorial was the first American cemetery in Europe, it is not the only cemetery and memorial on foreign soil. Take some time to remember these courageous men and women in the coming days. Also, take a moment to reflect on our memorials here at home, both our highly visible national memorials in Washington, D.C., and those on the local level that you may have in your hometown.

Until next time,
Lexi