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Book on production of "the Pacific" - an extra's view


bratwurstdimsum
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bratwurstdimsum

Guys,

 

I'm going to be publishing a book (hopefully) within the next month of my part in "The Pacific" mini-series, it's strictly unofficial and a mainly humorous look at being a soldier-extra in the show with all its complexities, excitement, and horrible realities of war.

 

Most of the book will center on the Marine Corp attack D-day+1 to 2 at Peleliu Beach and boot camp training by Capt Dale Dye's team of warriors inc.

 

It is illustrated throughout and will be available in hard or soft cover depending on demand and will be over 100 pages when completed. I will only charge the price it costs me to print as I won't do it for profit due to legal reasons. Publishing is just something I've always wanted to do, a few of you might have seen me flog this on the WAF forum.

 

pacificcover.jpg

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bratwurstdimsum

No probs Chris, will do

 

Here is an earlier draft of the chapter that features our first day on set.

 

Our group of soldiers were called B-Corp to supplement a more experienced group of A-Corp soldiers who had been there 6 months and were considered to be pretty hard core.

 

The following is what happens when a group of battle hardened vets get mixed up with a bunch of layabouts on their first day on set:

 

We all filed onto the two waiting minibuses, and were quickly driven up to the set via a series of interconnecting dirt roads. We arrived at a clearing on the side of the road and disembarked. I found out during this time why the military build their own vehicles. Civilian vehicles (especially ones of the budget rent-a-car breed) are totally unsuited to transporting soldiers. We bumped our helmeted heads, on the doorway and ceiling of the bus, totally misjudging our height. We got our rifles and webbing caught on people, doors, seats, and seat belt buckles. Our boots had large studded nails protruding from the soles so as we moved around, we scratched everything that wasn’t covered and made a terrific racket. These studs (called hobnails) would trap mud as well, so when we got onto the bus, we brought that onto the floors as well, which led to it getting onto the seats transforming the gleaming white van into this steel bucket of poo.

 

Getting out of the bus, we then had to march, single file about a hundred metres to a small open camouflaged marquee area on the left side of a dirt track, it was already a hot, dry day and a small cloud of dust had formed from our marching covering us in more dust. There, we met the “A Corp” Japanese whom we’d already caught a fleeting glance earlier in the change rooms.

 

It wasn’t long before we made our presence felt.

 

Whereas the A Corp Japanese sat diligently cross-legged engaging in small games of strategy or exercising, our B Corp troops, once we arrived, sighed loudly and dropped to the ground like we’d just finished the Bataan death march. Some of our guys wandered here and there, oooing and aaaahing at the sights and sounds of the movie set, joked and generally acting like the green recruits we were.

 

I heard a shout in Japanese not long after and it was immediately obvious that one of us had provoked the Ire of a sergeant.

When we got to the scene of the commotion, Sgt Yutaka was giving one of our B Corp guys a severe dressing down. It appears the extra took all his webbing off,

 

dropped it along with his rifle and left them on the ground unattended. In any other world this would be not such a bad thing but in the world of the military, every man was responsible for his kit and his gun and they protected him from harm and death…at least that’s what he was being told by the Sergeant.

 

After a one minute tirade, he ordered the offender to do fifty pushups. This clearly did not sit well with our B Corp man who obviously thought the job he’d signed up for was going to be like shooting another Baskin Robbins ice cream commercial.

 

Ego bruised but not defeated, he whined a challenge:

 

“Come on, you wouldn’t do push ups for something as stupid as leaving your stuff on the floor!”

 

Yutaka went into classic Banzai pose, the kind you see in any Japanese movie where the warrior looks surprised for a split second, then eyes become ablaze but still fixed onto his target. Without averting his gaze, he shouted a command in Japanese and as one, the twenty plus A Corp guys got onto their feet from whatever they were doing, stood to attention and shouted “Hai!” (yes), before leaping onto the ground and as one oiled machine started doing pushups. Yutaka towered over our extra now and demanded:

 

“Youa do pushups now!”

 

Clearly overwhelmed, with his young ego mashed into miso soup, he very slowly and reluctantly began his push ups.

 

As amusing as this seems from the page, I’m sure I speak for most of the B Corp boys when I say that we were all appalled that one of our own were being embarrassed in front of the whole movie set, even if it was his own fault that he had been an absolute nob and got himself into trouble with the Sergeant. I didn’t even know the guy apart from a brief introduction earlier, but I found myself on the ground doing the push ups as well; providing the psychological support for him to reach the fifty mark.

He eventually made it after much effort, with two more of us helping him along. He then collected his kit and walked off in a huff. I don’t ever remember seeing him again.

 

Nothing much else happened for the Japanese soldiers that day. There were plenty of action sequences being shot with the Marines though. It appeared that they were shooting a scene where they were breaking through some trees into open ground defended by some stout Imperials. I remember a Sherman tank, with its back facing us, pushing through the woods heading (presumably) towards the camera searching for an unseen enemy. Following alongside, there were Marines who paused every now and then to deliver some machine gun fire and mortar rounds.

 

After a short pause, there were four loud thumping noises and a mountain of dirt rose up into the sky. The debris seemed to move into the air in slow-motion and then just hang there as if time got suspended. Once the dirt started landing however, it just kept raining down like a biblical plague for thirty seconds afterwards.

 

Not long afterwards, a voice was heard on a megaphone about fifty metres away announcing that the take had been successful and that they were breaking for lunch. It was kind of bizarre that the bit that was out of place by this point in my day was not all the paraphernalia of war, but the Hollywood production crew that ran it.

 

Indeed, poring out of the same opening in the woods that the tank had just driven into and delivered its payload of death were a sea of production crew wearing denim jeans, baseball caps, polo shirts and sombreros. If that wasn’t strange enough, a few Japanese “A Corp” extras were now coming out of the set alongside the crew. From the burnt uniforms, bullet holes, bloody and gaping wounds in their abdomen, arms and face they appeared to be zombies rising from the dead.

 

One soldier had what was called a “prosthetic” applied to his face. It was a latex piece in the shape of a road kill hamburger that was glued on to his face and painted over to make his face look like his left cheek was ripped off nearly up to his ear. What made the whole scene hilarious was the fact that this obviously restricted the movement of his mouth, especially when attempting to eat Lunch. One of the catering girls handed him a large Panini sandwich. He tried eating it normally but could not get his teeth around the large roll. In the end he had to settle on jamming the Panini sideways through the side of his mouth that he could open. Any other way and he would’ve torn the prosthetic.

The rest of the day found us all lying under the marquee waiting for a call to the set that never came. At 4:30 pm we got told to get back on the busses, clean up and perform the whole wardrobe process in reverse before getting back into our civilian clothes and going home.

 

They obviously wanted us to be here a day earlier to get all our kit and weapons sorted out before the big day came.

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bratwurstdimsum

Thanks for the interest guys, it'll be around the US$20 delivered to US as I am publishing this myself I have to ship each book separately but I'm still exploring options to make it cheaper :)

 

If you all want to see more pics look in the movie review thread under "the pacific" - I have posted some pics there

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WW2 is not really my thing, but sounds to be an interesting read.

 

Put me down for a "signed copy" too

 

Matt

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And you survived Dale Dye telling war stories and making woven bracelets? That's just as harrowing as it must have been on Iwo itself!

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bratwurstdimsum
And you survived Dale Dye telling war stories and making woven bracelets? That's just as harrowing as it must have been on Iwo itself!

 

Dale was mostly concerned with the USMC guys, leaving us with two NCOs; Sergeant Majors Yutaka and Yuki. Even though the USMC had 3 Gunney sergeants and Dale on their backs, believe you me Yutaka and Yuki we no slouches. Yutaka alone was the tallest Japanese man I've ever seen and impressively frightening when he got fired up, which was often.

 

Dale addressed the Japanese B-Corp as a group once after a training battle with the USMC, not a nicer, more wise person in the art of warfare you will meet on this earth if you are lucky enough to get the chance.

 

J.

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bratwurstdimsum

Thanks for the support guys, I was wondering how many to print for a first run. My printer came up with a reasonable quote for 250 copies and it seemed quite a big number to fill at the time. Its quite hard to judge interest when you have not done this before. It looks like at least on this forum I won't have a huge problem :)

 

I will number the first 250 copies and sign them for anyone who has expressed interest.

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Thanks for the support guys, I was wondering how many to print for a first run. My printer came up with a reasonable quote for 250 copies and it seemed quite a big number to fill at the time. Its quite hard to judge interest when you have not done this before. It looks like at least on this forum I won't have a huge problem :)

 

I will number the first 250 copies and sign them for anyone who has expressed interest.

 

As I mentioned in the Movies thread, I'd be interested in one and also my mate who eventually appeared in the production. He also works for Hyland's Military and Technical bookshop in Melbourne's Chinatown and I dare say any excess copies will be enthusiastically snapped up there ...

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bratwurstdimsum
As I mentioned in the Movies thread, I'd be interested in one and also my mate who eventually appeared in the production. He also works for Hyland's Military and Technical bookshop in Melbourne's Chinatown and I dare say any excess copies will be enthusiastically snapped up there ...

 

Ha small world I work across the road from them, who is your mate? I go there all the time, I think I even convinced Neil to take a couple.

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bratwurstdimsum

I am not a twit and never used to use it but apparently its the only way to communicate these days so I have updates now on Twitter. :think: u don't have to subscribe just follow the link. Although if you do have an account and follow me, it'll help me promote the book :w00t:

 

http://twitter.com/Soldiermemoirs

 

Thanks!

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bratwurstdimsum
Neat idea for a book!

I'd buy a copy too. :thumbsup:

 

Not sure how to approach this but are there any actors or retired rank and file out there who are willing / wanting to do an intro for this book? I'm not promising anything :lol:

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Not sure how to approach this but are there any actors or retired rank and file out there who are willing / wanting to do an intro for this book?

 

 

Have you thought about asking Dale Dye himself for the task???

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bratwurstdimsum
Have you thought about asking Dale Dye himself for the task???

 

I asked and am waiting for a reply but I'd like to know who else is out there - I heard General S mcchrystal is looking for work :)

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