Americans at War

As many of you know—especially members of the U.S. Naval Institute who received a sample DVD last summer—the Institute is now on television. Our series, titled Americans at War, consists of 90-second high-definition interstitials that have been airing between feature programming on PBS since July. In the grand television scheme, these are decidedly baby steps, but reactions from across the country have been glowing.

The striking vignettes of combat veterans in their own words are the result of tedious editing done under the seasoned leadership of Executive Producer Tim Cowling and Producer/Director Yehuda Goldman. Tim and Yehuda call the shots on which images are used (many of them researched by Janis Jorgensen in our own photo archive) and how up to an hour of raw footage is transformed into a powerful 90 seconds. They do a masterful job.

One of our first interview subjects was Edwin C. Bearss, former chief historian of the National Park Service best known for the legendary tours he leads across this country's Civil War battlefields. Some of you might recognize him from his colorful commentary on Ken Burns' highly acclaimed PBS series The Civil War. What many people don't know about Ed is that he suffered serious wounds in the Battle of Suicide Creek at Cape Gloucester on New Britain in World War II.

After receiving our sample DVD, with Ed Bearss on it, 81-year-old Sid Speed from Morgantown, West Virginia, decided to write him a note. Speed's brother, Harold, and Ed had been in the same platoon during the battle. The Speed family had been told that Harold was killed instantly on 26 December 1943 as his landing craft reached the beach. But it turns out Harold was killed in combat at Suicide Creek on 2 January. In fact, Ed said, "he was behind me that day." And Ed was there when he died. "I'm still in a state of awe," Mr. Speed wrote to us. "Because of that promotional DVD, I was able to connect with Ed and get a first-hand report." We're willing to bet this series will reveal many more such connections in the future. Stay tuned.