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[Rdtf]

I have high hopes for this movie. Hoping Hollywood doesn't screw it up. My dad was an Army Ranger in WWII and was involved in some of the rescues that went on in the Philippines. Today would have been his 89th birthday. Forever proud of you Daddy!

http://www.miramax.com/the_great_raid/

[Me#1You#10]

Rdtf...

You have a father who left you a legacy of honor and service. Thanks for the heads-up on this docu-drama.

Here's a little more background on the tragic story of the WWII Phillipines theatre...from Ollie North's "War Stories"...

[Essayons]

Maybe I am losing my mind or reading the wrong books but my understanding is that Bataan feel first and then Corrigedor. The Bataan Death March was over by the time Corrigedor fell in April 1942 and the Corrigedor survivors were marched through Manila.

So there would not have been a retreat to Bataan as stated in the article (The remaining troops were forced to retreat to the Bataan Peninsula.)

I found this article that may help explain things: http://home.pacbell.net/fbaldie/In_Retrospect.html

Regards,
Dick
_________________
Essayons - Let us try - the code of the Army Engineer. Sappers First, the code of the Combat Engineer.

[Rdtf]

Not sure - but the movie is about the Cabanatuan rescue.

[Leeman]

You can read about the raid in a great book "Ghost Soldiers" by Hampton Sides.

I live in CT. & travel the Col Mucci highway everyday so was always interested in what he did in the service.

So far no article in the local papers about the movie coming out.?

It's a really great story, I hope they do justice to the Filipino gurrillas, who helped a lot. & also the alamo scouts.

"We are all ghost now"
"But once we were men"
from an unsigned diary recovered from Cabanatuan camp


Leeman

[Rdtf]

Strange - I heard on Fox just yesterday that it would be out this weekend, but the release date I see is listed as 8/12.
http://movies.channel.aol.com/movie/main.adp?mid=16086


Leeman- I did read Ghost Soldiers - great book. My dad never talked much at all about the war, but he did mention the guerillas and had this cool knife one of them gave him. He spoke fondly of them. He paid a high price for being over there, he ended up with Malaria and had sort of a nervous breakdown. Was never the same again.

[Rdtf]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,34147,00.html

[I B Squidly]

I loved the PI! Tried to tell the Navy it was my home of record at discharge...they didn't buy it. It wasn't just what a bag of M&Ms could get you and the LBFMs, but the lush greenery (home of record was Phoenix...), the variety of fresh fish served three times a day for a month without repeat, the balmy evenings on warm beaches bathed in spectacular sunsets, the refreshing mountain climbs releaved by rushing rills, the...ohh, damn that Pinatubo! The darkside? Dysentery lurked in the water, malaria loves the tropics, bacteria and fungi threatened to eat you and all your possessions, and the government was as corrupt as anyplace with that spanish/catholic/oligarchic legacy. It's not really a healthful climate for big nosed 'mercanos with a sense of common law. Surviving the Japanese camps is nothing short of miraculous.

The inability of the US to project power and supply to the Philipines in early '42 spelled doom for any commander but MacCarthur's performance was as disgraceful as anything since Braxton Bragg. Mac was in the PI because after he ordered the destuction of the 'Bonus Army' in DC he was considered antithetical to democratic government, bad press for the military, and traded his commission to become Generalissimo of the Philipines. He frustrated his air commander and destroyed his airwing. He refused to believe the Japanese would land at Lingayen with it's access to the central Luzon plain and when apprized of his mistake ordered the precipitous retreat to Bataan with an inaddequate supply train across the Japanese line of advance. Corregidor, the piece of rock an arm's length off Bataan 'guarded' the entrance to Manila Bay and was obsolete so, Mac' holed up there. Magsaysay, the Philipine president paid him over a million dollars to hang tough but "Bug Out Doug" caught the first PT boat out of town...."an heroic rescue" ....for the PT skippers. 60,000 Japanese found themselves with 90,000 POWs in a hostile country and couldn't kill them fast enough!

Inchon was Doug's greatest achievement and he threw it all away with a stand-down on the eve of the Chinese advance. Alexander Haig assigned to his headquarters as a first posting out of USMA said it wasn't a military headquarters, it was a public relations office and the 'boss' had more protocols than the Emperor of Japan.

Like father, like son Doug was beholden to his mother. Doug's father commanded a division at Missionary Ridge in the Chattanooga battles of 1863. The divisions below the ridge were ordered by Grant to 'demonstrate' while Sherman's corps attacked on the left. Sherman screwed up and the troops tired of being targets, 'mutinied' and took the ridge on their own and won the the field. Doug's father went up to see what the hell was going on and caught up with his troops when they realized their over-extension. His wife, Doug's mother and her wealthy family spent 20+ years lobbying to get him the CMH for his troops 'mutiny'. He then led the first US troops into the PI in 1898 and arrogantly triggered a nasty, brutish, guerilla war. The 45 was invented because standard issue 38s wouldn't stop crazed Philipinos with Bolo knives (pay attention RDTF).

Sorry for all the the blather. But, Doug was the sorriest piece of self-aggrandizing sh!t ever to wear 4 stars!
_________________
"KILL ALL THE LAWYERS!"

-Wlm Shakespeare

[Rdtf]

I went to see the movie this afternoon- seems they stayed true to the story and real characters. At the end they show tons of real footage while running credits, and with not a dry eye in the place not a single person left until the lights came on - and not before the whole place errupted in applause. It was great! You'll love it.

[GenrXr]

Saw the movie and it was very good. My Grandfather on my mothers side was disabled on the left side of his body for life from fighting while in Luzon, although which phase of the Luzon battles noone seems to know. My father says he was part of the Bataan Death March, yet my mother says he was part of the force that liberated Luzon. Thing is my Grandfather never discussed WWII with anyone other then my Grandmother and at his funeral the only thing shown was his medals and a brief he got put into a coma for 1 month from fighting in Luzon. Another interesting thing about my Grandfather is he never talked with anyone from the military after the war.

He died last year.

The only thing I have been able to find out about him in relation to the war on the web is his grave marker.

SORENSEN, HJALMER C
TSGT US ARMY
WORLD WAR II
DATE OF BIRTH: 11/29/1917
DATE OF DEATH: 01/12/2004
BURIED AT: SECTION 49A SITE 4707
RIVERSIDE NATIONAL CEMETERY


If anyone can find more info I would appreciate it.

btw I B, my family who fought in WWII could not stand MacArthur, yet loved Nimitz
_________________
"An activist is the person who cleans up the water, not the one claiming its dirty."
"All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to stand by and do nothing." Edmund Burke (1729-1797), Founder of Conservative Philosophy

[Rdtf]

Thought ya'll find this interesting - Spielberg and Tom Cruise were all set to make this movie, even bought the rights to Ghost Soldiers, but Miramax beat them to it with 'The Great Raid'.


http://www.eonline.com/News/Items/0,1,9426,00.html

[Rdtf]