Bravo!
Synopsis for Bravo! the Movie
The story of Bravo Company, First Battalion, 26th Marine Regiment is a very personal tale of young men, untested, mostly new to Vietnam, who were trapped in one of the worst sieges in the history of American warfare. The siege of Khe Sanh was one of the salient conflicts of the American experience in the Vietnam War, and the young men of Bravo Company were asked again and again to stand up and fight under some of the most trying conditions of the lengthy war. And they delivered.
Lasting seventy-seven days, this specific battle involved large, division-level forces on the North Vietnamese side and regimental engagement on the American side. Elements of three North Vietnamese divisions surrounded three United States Marine Corps regiments—the 9th, the 13th, and the 26th—along with supporting forces.
An estimated 354 men were killed on the American side. Of those, more than 60 were Bravo Company Marines and corpsmen.
One of Bravo Company’s major engagements during the siege, what has been called the “Ghost Patrol,” has been well documented, but other patrols, that of March 21, 1968 and the March 30, 1968 “Payback Patrol” are little known and largely undocumented.
On the Payback Patrol, two Navy Crosses, eight Silver Stars, nine Bronze Stars, and Two Navy Commendation Medals with Combat “V” were awarded. Additionally, in excess of one-hundred Purple Hearts were awarded to wounded combatants, and this for a patrol that included less than one-hundred participants. A number of Marines and corpsmen received multiple wounds that day.
During the four-hour fight, the marines of Bravo Company killed an estimated 115 North Vietnamese soldiers of the 8th Battalion, 66th Regiment of the 304 (Hanoi) Iron division of Dien Bien Phu fame. The battalion commander and his staff were among the dead North Vietnamese. Additionally, Bravo Company inflicted a large number of non-lethal wounds on their foes.
The story of Bravo Company and its aggressive Marine warriors is deeply explored and documented in this film, along with the general state of life in the siege trenches where they endured the agony of nearly constant enemy bombardment.
Many of the marines who survived the siege of Khe Sanh are in their sixties and seventies and time is beginning to play out to document their memories, their stories. Now is the time.
This independent documentary film captures their stories through filmed and recorded interviews, along with historic photographs, news clips and other media from the time of the siege. The stories are intertwined with other forms of media that creates a documentary capturing the fear, the suffering, the elation of war.
Just boys when they arrived in country, the men of Bravo Company were tempered by fear and violence and when asked to do their jobs as marines, responded. Bravo! Common Men, Uncommon Valor documents their story.
Keep up the Good Work. I thought we had more KIA/WIA then noted in your synopsis? Wasn’t that DOD number? Dave Spry E/2/26
Hello David,
Thanks for the encouragement. You may very well be right about KIA/WIA figures. There are different numbers depending on the source. Do you have any suggestions about a more reliable source than the DOD?
[…] was lucky to catch a screening of the new independent film Bravo! Common Men, Uncommon Valor, in Arlington, Virginia last week. I was by far the youngest member of the packed audience and […]
Pingback by Bravo! — Siobhan Fallon — September 7, 2012 @ 8:49 amThe DVD was sent to me by Marines that were also in Vietnam, Hue City, particularly Nicholas Warr, Author of PHASE LINE GREEN. I was so caught up in the emotion of the piece, I felt exhausted after it (and my wife who is a 24 year vet of the Navy).
I made a comment and posted your DVD on our page for our film, Mirage at Zabul Province, pushing them to your site. I hope this helps, Social Media can really help the cause.
If you or anyone on Bravo are in the LA area, our Red Carpet Premiere is July 7th, Sunday, at The CINEFAMILY THEATER, West Los Angeles at 611 North Fairfax from 2:00PM-4:00PM. Would love to have you or anyone from your organization present.
Please you or anyone join us and RSVP me at mroling@hiungrydreagonfilms.com. We are involved with Wounded Warrior Project as well, and are considering Nick’s PHASE LINE GREEN as a feature film from the book. Maybe somewhere in all of this is a tie-in with you at Bravo.
Thanks again!
Mark F. Roling
President/COO
Hungry Dragon Films
Facebook:HungryDragonFilms
Facebook:MirageAtZabulProvince
Let’s try that again, shall we, (fingers too big for this HP/Mini), mroling@hungrydragonfilms.com. Immediate members (Betty & Ken), authors, producers & Director of the DVD please, limited space. Thanks!
Semper FI Marines.
Semper Fi, Phil.
I am a Vietnam veteran and am looking forward to seeing the film. I also wrote and dedicated an album “War Torn Years” to my brothers. http://www.reverbnation.com/tomyarborough
Thank you for doing this film.
Tom Yarborough
Thank you, Tom.
My husbands father passed when he was ten from esophageal cancer as a result of agent orange exposure. We have a lighter with 26th Scotland on it and believe he is the “unknown” soldier in your picture. We’d sure like to be in contact with you privately as we no nothing of his experience in the war and I can’t figure out how to send a private message on this site. I have a picture that looks an awful lot like the unknown soldier in addition to the lighter. We don’t have his military ID, etc and we’re trying to get ahold of his records. We were kind of hoping you guys could point us in the right direction. We have no idea where to even begin. It would be even better if any of you remember him. Good, bad or ugly…..thanks for your time and thanks for your service! Godspeed! Jennifer
My brother was a corpsman with the 26th marines during the siege his name was Tom fitzgerald
Although he is no longer with us I just thought you might remember him
Do not think I knew him.
I just so happen to come across this site as I was thinking on the greatest man that I have ever known, Quiles Ray Jacobs. I read Mr. Micheal O’Hara’s post regarding Q Ray or Jake, and it brought tears to my eyes. Q Ray as I knew him was my father. Not my biological father, but a father in every sense of the word. I am Naomi’s son and Q Ray was my dad. I remember meeting Col. Ken Pipes and Mr. O’ Hara as a young man on several occasions. I witnessed Q Ray’s massive heart as a man and a father. Thinking back as a husband and a father myself I can’t help but think, what manner of man was he?! As a 42yr old man I still feel like I can’t come no where near his caliber. He was a giant of a man, and I appreciate everything he taught me now having a mature mind to understand his teachings. He would never allow my brother Micheal and I to say that we can’t do something. He had this saying that he taught us to think on whenever we felt discouraged. We would say, “Who am I, I’m a Jacob, and what can we do, I can do anything, why, because I’m a Jacob! I miss my Dad! He passed away when I was 15, and I wish he was there to guide me through so many things, but I cherish the time that we had. Quiles Ray Jacobs, a mountain of a man!
Thank you all for doing this! Watching the DVD right now. I can now have an understanding of why I witnessed such an emotional outpouring in men towards one another in my visit to the Vietnam wall in 1992 with my dad Quiles Ray Jacobs as he embarrassed his brothers in arms with many tears. May God bless all these men and their families.
I want to thank Ken & Betty Rodgers for creating this documentary and the men of Bravo 1/26 who lived through this battle. The documentary was personal, intense and honest, which creates or allows outsiders an opportunity to try to understand what combat does to people and the hardships it creates after the battle is over.
My father was a 1st MarDiv Marine in Korea. He never talked about it. I enlisted in the Marines in 1977. I heard a lot of stories about Vietnam from senior Marines, but I never quite understood what it meant to be in combat.
This documentary opened my eyes to see the effects of war on men. I now understand what my father endured as well as the other Marines I knew.
Thank you
Thank you for your comments, Sir.