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"Taking Chance"
The Story of a Fallen Marine's Final Journey Home
On Good Friday, April 9, 2004, one month after deploying to Iraq with 3d Battalion, 11th Marine Regiment, First Marine Division, Private First Class Chance Phelps was killed by hostile fire in Al Anbar province. Lieutenant Colonel Michael Strobl, a manpower analyst assigned to the Marine Corps Combat Development Command in Quantico, Va., volunteered to escort Phelps' body home to Dubois, Wyo.
On his return trip to Virginia, LtCoI Strobl began to write an official trip report, but the report evolved into a poignant reflection of the actions and emotions of Americans throughout the journey who, being touched by the sight of the escort performing his duty, respectfully recognized the sacrifice made by PFC Phelps and his family.
"Taking Chance," the resulting story, was circulated widely on the Internet, appeared in the Marine Corps Gazette (www .mca-marines.org/leatherneck/taking chance) and other media, and eventually landed in the hands of executive producer Brad Krevoy, who brought the project to HBO. The film by the same name is a masterful re-creation of the journey, an archetypical American military journey that not only deeply touches the working men and women who witness the transport of Phelps' remains, but will pierce the heart of everyone who tunes in to the film's debut Saturday, Feb. 21, at 8 p.m. ET/PT.
Through Strobl's story, the intensely private military procedure that provides a uniformed escort for casualties is unveiled to viewers. From the beginning of the journey at Ramstein Air Base, Germany, to the arrival at the Dover Port Mortuary at Dover Air Force Base, Del., whether in midnight darkness or pouring rain, military personnel in formation render honors by slowly saluting remains as they are loaded ceremoniously onto aircraft or hearse.
The film re-creates...