The night before last, Betty and Ken Rodgers screened BRAVO! to a small but very enthusiastic group of viewers, mostly Marines from differing eras, in Bartlett, Tennessee, a “burb” as the locals call it, adjacent to Memphis. The screening was arranged by Mr. Cobb Hammond, a securities broker, military historian and writer with a lot of familial Marine Corps tradition, and Mr. Skip Funk who was at the Siege of Khe Sanh with H & S Company, 26th Marine Regiment. Skip and Ken Rodgers had the same company commander, Captain Ken Pipes, while in Vietnam, but at different times. The screening was hosted at LSI Inc., which is owned by Mr. Mason Ezzell who was a pilot in the United States Air Force and flew during the Vietnam War.

Besides arranging the screening, Cobb toured Betty and Ken around Memphis, to Beale Street, the heart of the blues music tradition of Memphis, along the Mississippi River, and also to Sun Records, owned by the late Sam Phillips, one of the birthplaces of rockabilly music. Elvis started his recording career there, as did Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Johnny Cash. Howling Wolf got one of his early recording breakthroughs at Sun. The Rolling Stones cut tunes there.

It was good to meet the men at the screening. We met a Marine who was awarded the Silver Star for action at Hue City in 1968. We met a Marine who enlisted in 1948 and served two tours in Vietnam. We met a Marine who enlisted in 1954 and served for thirty years. A veteran of the United States Air Force who attended was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for his service in Vietnam. Mr. Barry Hart, Marine from Paris, Tennessee, attended. Barry was an early supporter of BRAVO! and personally knows one of the men in the film, Mike McCauley. While Skip Funk was trapped in Khe Sanh with Ken Rodgers and the other Marines and Navy Corpsmen in the film, his father took a voluntary special assignment and left Washington, DC, to fly B-52s out of Guam over Khe Sanh. Father was covering son. He was covering us all.

Most of the Marines who attended the screening are affiliated with the Walter K. Singleton Detachment of the Marine Corps League. Walter K. Singleton was a Bartlett/Memphis native who was posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his actions on March 24, 1967 while serving with the 1st Battalion, 9th Marines in Quang Tri Province. The Walter K Singleton Detachment of the Marine Corps League also was an early supporter of BRAVO!

After the screening, a number of the viewers rose from their seats and made various comments about war, Vietnam, democracy, the film. After the film, Betty and Ken discussed how these spontaneous moments of dialogue gratify the effort put into creating this piece of history, film, art.

Special thanks to the Walter K. Singleton Detachment of the Marine Corps League, to Mr. Mason Ezzel, to Skip Funk and especially to Mr. Cobb Hammond.

Last Thursday afternoon, August 9, 2012, Ken and Betty screened BRAVO! COMMON MEN, UNCOMMON VALOR at the Omni in Irving (Dallas), Texas for one-hundred-twenty-five-plus members of the Vietnam Veterans of America.

The film was well received and Ken and Betty Rodgers owe a lot of thanks to the VVA and to VVA Veteran publisher, Michael Keating and writer and historian Marc Leepson, who spearheaded BRAVO!’s showing at the meeting.

The accommodations at the Omni were more than adequate and each day began with an early morning walk around the Las Colinas surrounds.

Ken and Betty visited with lots of energetic folks who are particularly interested in veterans’ affairs, especially those of Vietnam veterans. Several unofficial invitations to screen the film in various locations have already come in from some of the convention attendees.

Last Monday evening, August 13, 2012, the film was again screened in Texas, but this time one-hundred-fifty miles southwest of Dallas in Constitution Hall at the Douglas MacArthur Academy of Freedom housed at Howard Payne University in Brownwood, Texas. Fifty-plus folks came and watched and proved to be a fine audience who generously pitched in to help fund some of BRAVO!’s many expenses.

The Rodgers were surprised with a visit from Mike and his wife Kelley Carwile. Mike is a Bravo Marine who fought during the siege with the men in the film. Mike and Ken had a great visit, recalling the men they served with and laughing at some of the antics they used to pull. Mike brought lots of photos from his two tours in Vietnam.

Much thanks to Ken and Betty’s great friends, Mary and Roger Engle, for ponying up some shelter and chow and for arranging the screening of the film. Much thanks, too, to retired Marine Gunnery Sergeant Billy Murphey, Brown County’s Veteran’s Service Officer, and his Marine Corps League detachment for all their hard work helping us set up and tear down the screening and for posting the colors and conducting the Pledge of Allegiance. Kudos, too, to Dr. Justin Murphy and Ms. Terrie Weeks of the Academy of Freedom for their support.

It has been hot, then wet, then muggy here in central Texas, and even though we have had a great stretch, it is time to move on towards Memphis, Tennessee where Mr. Cobb Hammond will host a screening of BRAVO! at:

LSI Inc., 2950 Bartlett Road, in Memphis/Bartlett at 7 PM on August 20, 2012. If you live in the Memphis area, please consider attending the screening. Please RSVP with Ken at kennetherodgers@gmail.com if you plan to attend.

BRAVO! will also be screened at 1 PM on August 31, 2012, at the Sheraton Arlington Hotel in the Washington DC area. More details to follow.

In addition, another showing of BRAVO! will occur on September 8, 2012, in Boston. Again, more details to follow soon.

Please contact us if you live in the Memphis, Washington, DC, or Boston areas and if you are interested in attending a screening of BRAVO!

Find out more about BRAVO! and Brownwood, TX, in the feature article from the August 12, 2012 edition of the Brownwood Bulletin here.

Read former Washington Post film critic Stephen Hunter’s review of BRAVO! published in the VVA Veteran for July/August 2012 here and scroll down one page.