The Wars My Father Never Fought

Hey.

So far only one person has taken my quiz at http://fpilot.friendtest.com/ so because of this I can't tell the whole story I want to. There may be clues, but as the answer to a question in the quiz is at the core of this story, I'm not going to give it away.

Fifty three years ago, my father was in military training in California when Hollywood came looking for extras for a war movie. And so he and a couple thousand of his buddies were marching for the cameras.

This month, we got the movie on DVD, and I have to tell you, this is a very very classic example of a Hollywood war movie. You have the same combination of drama, comedy, action and soaper elements you have seen just about every time--and done WELL.

He showed us the scenes he had participated in and we came to the conclusion that we would need a microscope to identify him in the ranks. But he was there and he is still proud of where he was and what he did that day.

My dad went overseas, just after the film was in the can, but the end of his war came before he arrived at the battlefields. And, thank goodness, there would never be another war for him. No, his unit only saw fire in Cinemascope and Technicolor.

But just the same, the battles on this film are the battles he may have fought. Where fiction met life. Where actors are the characters they play. Where history itself becomes a stew of fact, anecdotage and legend.

And for those who see old films today, he will always be marching for them, forever.

FP