101st soldiers prominent in ‘The Hornet’s Nest’

CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. – Few war movies survive scrutiny from real warriors, but "The Hornet's Nest", a groundbreaking film about the Afghanistan War being released on Memorial Day weekend, not only survives the eye of the combat soldier, it exceeds their expectations.

A lot of the reason for that has to do with the credibility of the man chiefly responsible for the film – Mike Boettcher of ABC News, who has earned a reputation as the dean of modern combat correspondents.

Boettcher had that reputation before "The Hornet's Nest". The film cements it, largely because of the judgment of soldiers added to the professional accolades of peers.

Perhaps not since Ernie Pyle in World War II has a journalist bonded so deeply with the warriors he has covered. Col. J.B. Vowell, who as a lieutenant colonel commanded the unit featured most prominently in the movie – the "No Slack" 2nd Battalion, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division – explained why.

"Mike has that kind of credibility," said Vowell (who now commands the 101st Airborne's 3rd Brigade Combat Team), "because he walked where we walked, ate what we ate and endured what we endured."

Echoing that sentiment, No Slack veteran Staff Sgt. Joshua Frappiere stated, when asked if Boettcher had captured the reality of combat, "He captured it in every respect, in every way possible.

"He was 'boots on the ground' with us. He was in every firefight, and when we suffered our losses, he was right next to us. He caught it all."

Former Army specialist Shawn Basham, another No Slack soldier, was equally adamant, saying, "(The film) is as real as it gets. He captured it from the highs to the lows. When I see my brothers on film, I see them as they really are."

Love story

"The Hornet's Nest" is a brutally raw look at war and warriors, devoid of politics and preachiness and heavy on what really motivates soldiers, which is love for one another, of a kind that often evades the grasp of words.

Boettcher's ability to connect with soldiers at that level is the product of six years of near total-immersion in their world, during which he spent very little time stateside. Thirty years of reporting on combat and conflict all over the world laid the groundwork for the making of the film, but Boettcher said it didn't prepare him for what he found when he entered the soldier's world without reservations or emotional distance.

"I've seen some great things," Boettcher said in an interview with The Leaf-Chronicle. "I've seen the Berlin Wall come down and I was there when Nelson Mandela was freed from prison, but in terms of experiencing the closeness that one man can feel for another when you think you're about to die, I have never experienced anything like this.

"To witness the things I saw – one man trying to save another, putting his life out there – to me, that's more extraordinary than the fall of the Berlin Wall. It really is. It rates up there at the top of everything I've done."

'It's about family'

Make no mistake; the movie's "R" rating reflects the raw language and ferocity of real combat.

The bullets buzz within inches of the camera like giant, angry bees, all the more impactful with the understanding that they are real, as are the explosions and the threat of imminent death for everyone on-screen. The film's producers, Christian Tureaud and David Salzberg, insist that there is not one added sound effect or anything else inserted, other than the soundtrack that compliments the movie and never distracts from it.

And the film moves like few others, making an hour-and-a-half fly by in what seems like half the time. But for all the jackhammer point-of-impact intensity, Boettcher insists – as did many in the audience following a recent special screening at the Regal Clarksville Stadium 16 – that the film is not a war story.

"It's a story about family," said Boettcher. "That's really what it is."

'I need to know'

It's actually a story of two families.

One is the No Slack family of the "Bastogne" Brigade, forged into a brotherhood by bloodshed and sacrifice during the deadliest deployment of the War on Terror for the 101st Airborne Division – Operation Enduring Freedom 2010-2011.

The other family is Mike Boettcher and his son, Carlos.

The elder Boettcher's dedication to his work had resulted in a divorce and a bitter estrangement from his son, until the day came when Carlos told Mike he was going with him to Afghanistan, with or without his permission.

"I need to know why you chose your work over us," Carlos said.

As Mike explains in the movie, "It was a last chance to reconnect with my son. The trick was, we needed to come out of there alive."

In several heart-stopping moments in the film, that almost didn't happen.

At one point, under intense fire while exposed on a 45-degree slope, as Carlos continues to work his camera, a soldier says to him, "This is video you're not going to show your parents." Meanwhile, his father is pinned down just a few feet away.

Later in the film, following a physically exhausting march with the 8th Marines through the hellish terrain of Helmand Province in 130 degree heat, Mike is told that one group of Marines have been ordered to go another 10 miles.

Carlos tells his father, who is utterly spent, to stay with the other group while he goes ahead. Mike's pride is boundless as he watches his son grow in front of his eyes.

Not only were the Boettchers the first father-and-son team embedded in a war zone, they became the first father and son to each win an Emmy for the same story.

In early March 2011, Carlos went home for a break and Mike stayed and re-embedded with the 101st Airborne.

'The Hornet's Nest'

As for the No Slack family, the bond they shared was already strong when they received their toughest mission toward the end of their deployment in late March 2011, tasked to go after a Taliban warlord deep in the "Heart of Darkness" – Kunar Province, Afghanistan – where no coalition forces had dared to go for years.

The No Slack soldiers mentally prepared themselves for the worst, and that's what they found in "The Hornet's Nest".

Operation Strong Eagle III was supposed to last three days. It lasted nine.

The battle takes up a third of the film, and in a movie that already moves fast, it's a rocket ride. The tension leading up to the explosion of violence is palpable, and what follows is emotionally draining.

In terrain that is merciless, with slopes so steep that heavily-burdened soldiers are going downhill grabbing onto small trees to keep from sliding to the bottom, the No Slack battalion has to fight a mostly-unseen enemy that seems to be everywhere and nowhere.

As the battalion finds itself surrounded and the battle turns into a 360-degree firefight, Boettcher asks, "What's it going to feel like when a bullet comes through me?"

When he watches a helicopter go down, shot to pieces in the midst of a Medevac mission, another thought intrudes: "This might be the day."

'It isn't Hollywood'

Former No Slack Chaplain Justin Roberts wrote The Leaf-Chronicle from Germany, stating, "'The Hornet's Nest' is as close as people can get to the war without enlisting. As America's longest war comes to a close, it is my hope that Americans will see the movie, so that they can understand a bit more about what has transpired with this war and begin discussing the way forward as our veterans come home."

At the Clarksville special screening on Monday, May 12, Gold Star mother Sheila Patton, who lost a son in Iraq, said after the movie, "I think people need to be prepared before they go into the theater for what they're going to see, because it's not Hollywood. It's real."

It is real and raw and wrenching, but it is hard to place a label on this movie. It isn't Hollywood. It isn't "based on a true story." But it is so emotionally engaging that the word "documentary" doesn't seem to fit.

In the interview with The Leaf-Chronicle, Boettcher refers to it as a "narrative film" at one point and as an "historical document" at another, and both are right, but each is also incomplete as a description.

The one label that really sticks – and you recognize it as a fact when you meet the people who lived this story as a group and watch their interaction – is that it ultimately is about family.

Start point for closure

If there is a father and mother of this family, it is the former command sergeant major of No Slack, retired Command Sgt. Maj. Chris Fields, and his wife, Debbie.

Blown up numerous times in deployments, Chris's reputation was famously tough, inspiring a Facebook page full of Chuck Norris-type "top this one" quips. But watching him interact with his soldiers is to see why he has been effective in his post-Army mission with Operation Restored Warrior, helping them to recover their lives from the wreckage of war.

He believes "The Hornet's Nest" will help the process for many, including spouses who may never before have grasped what their soldier saw and did.

"It helps the soldier to see it from another perspective," Chris said following the Clarksville screening. "And It helps to get couples to start talking to each other."

Debbie Fields, who calls the soldiers of No Slack her "stepsons," said, "It definitely brings the conversation about the war to a starting point. It will also give spouses, parents and siblings a better idea of why their soldier doesn't want to talk about it, why the memorials are so hard for them."

As for Mike Boettcher, who is unstintingly accepted as part of the No Slack family, his take on the movie is that it was worth six years of his life to tell the story and tell it right.

"Of all the stories I've had to tell over the years," he said, "this was the toughest to do and get it right, because a soldier is going to know BS and I couldn't do that to them. That was always on my mind, day after day."

However, it was Debbie Fields who made the best closing argument for the movie, saying, "People like to tell soldiers, 'Thank you for your service.'

"They should go see this movie so they know what they're thanking them for."

See the movie trailer at http://goo.gl/EbtI1h.

Republished from 5/21/14

Philip Grey, 245-0719

Military affairs reporter

philipgrey@theleafchronicle.com

Twitter: @PhilipGrey_Leaf