A Conversation With My Son. Are You Having This Conversation?

On this 16th Anniversary of the September 11th attacks, I thought I'd repost the conversation I shared with my son a year ago to this day. 

"Did you watch the movie at school about 9/11?"

"Yeah."

"Have I ever told you about what I remember about that day? I had watched the first part of the Today Show and from the stories they were covering that morning I remember thinking, 'must be a slow news day' so I started switching channels. Your dad called and said, 'Did you hear? A plane crashed into the World Trade Center.' I assumed it was a small private plane that had lost control but I quickly turned back to the Today Show and there was the live coverage. 

Of course no one knew exactly what had happened. Terrorism was under suspicion but that didn’t become clear until the second plane hit. Then when the third plane hit the Pentagon it was really scary and almost surreal. It was hard to grasp that our country was actually being attacked, and we didn’t know where it would end. What else was planned? Your dad came home from work. I called Grandma and Grandpa and other family to see where they were and make sure they were okay. Air traffic control ordered all planes to land. But there was one plane that kept flying.”

“Flight 93?”

“Yeah.”

“Let’s roll?”

I smiled. “You remember me telling you about that? How the passengers fought back?"

He nodded.

“Your dad and I stayed glued to the television set. It was horrible. I can remember seeing things falling from the towers and realizing those were people who were jumping to their deaths.”

“Why would they do that?”

“There was no other way out. Fire was all around them. And I can remember seeing the towers leaning, thinking those are going to fall. They stood for awhile but you could see it. You could see they were going to fall. And imagine all the firefighters and first responders. They ran into those buildings, even though they were full of fire and could collapse at any minute. Can you imagine running into a building that looked like that? They ran into those buildings to try and save people.”

At this point I had to stop. My tears were too close to falling.

“Mom, the movie at school talked about the good in 9/11.”

I looked at him. “The good?”

“Well yeah. I mean, it told stories about how people helped each other.”

I nodded. “Yes, people did help each other. They worked together and in the days following 9/11 we all really felt … I don’t know, united, patriotic. You know how people chant USA USA USA? People were chanting that a lot.”

I went on to tell him about how Jay Leno said in his first monologue after the attacks that we’d been sucker-punched. I told him that a concert was given to raise money for the victims and their families and all kinds of artists and celebrities pitched in to help. Tom Petty sang “I Won’t Back Down” and I can remember thinking about what an appropriate song that was to sing, and how to this day I always identify that song with September 11^th. I told him how we as Americans knew that our country would fight back, and feeling pride when the news broke that our troops had invaded Afghanistan. I told him that despite all the talk he may hear about the war in Iraq and whether it was justified, that I believe that George W. Bush is a good man, and always had America’s best interests at heart.

Then I told him the story about what happened at the Minneapolis airport, not too long after the attacks. I don’t remember where we were traveling, but our family was waiting for our flight. The gate was so crowded we couldn’t even find seats so we sat on the floor. Finally our plane arrived and the door opened for the passengers to deplane. We watched as service member after service member came through the door and were greeted by their families. I remember tearing up as I watched people hug their loved ones like they never wanted to let them go. And then the coolest thing happened that I will never forget. People started to clap. As the military members and their families started walking through the airport people stopped what they were doing and stood aside to applaud them as they walked by. 

It wasn’t planned. 

It wasn’t organized. 

We were simply Americans, united by tragedy and applauding those who were defending our country.

These are the stories that may not be covered in textbooks, but we can pass them down. What about you? What do you tell your children about that fateful day?

Yes, Even a Kid Can Make a Difference

This blog post is a continuation of my first two posts entitled How a Writer's Decision to Give a Character Backstory Altered a Little Slice of WWII History. If you missed Part One of this blog post, Click Here. If you missed Part Two, Click Here.

So how does an eleven-year-old boy watching Jaws have an effect on World War II history? If you’re Hunter Scott, you decide that Quint’s story is pretty fascinating, and would make a very good History Fair Project. If you’re Hunter Scott’s dad, you tell him to go to the library to do research, as Google was not yet a verb. So Hunter searched the history books, old newspaper articles and scoured the Internet but couldn’t find much information about one of the worst disasters in U.S. Navy history, and Hunter and his dad found this kind of … strange. 

Hunter didn’t give up in his quest for information, though. He advertised in a local Navy newspaper that he was looking to interview survivors of the U.S.S. Indianapolis and found a survivor who lived close by. This man’s firsthand account of surviving for five days in shark-infested waters made Quint’s story sound like a casual swim. He gave Hunter a list of names of other survivors, many who were happy to connect with this eleven-year-old boy and tell their stories—stories that some had kept buried deep inside for years. Hunter recorded the tales of these heroic men, who had suffered on a level that’s hard for most of us to fathom. Their stories are grave reminders of the true horror of war, as well as inspiring testimonials of how the human spirit can triumph against unspeakable odds. And as Hunter interviewed survivor after survivor, he heard one common concern that was voiced repeatedly. These men insisted that their captain had been unfairly court-martialed. 

You see, the night of the sinking had been dark with poor visibility. Warnings of Japanese submarines in the area had not been taken seriously, so were never passed along to Captain McVay. In fact, he had been denied his request for an escort and was told he could zigzag at his discretion--indicating that the Navy did not think their route was dangerous enough to take these precautions. Zigzagging is something a captain would do in conditions of clear visibility and a high probability of enemy submarines in the area; however to Captain McVay’s knowledge, neither situation applied. However, after the tragedy the Navy decided they needed someone to blame. Instead of focusing on a series of errors that could have prevented the tragedy, the Navy court-martialed Captain McVay for hazarding his ship by not zigzagging. 

Sadly, Hunter couldn’t interview the captain to hear his defense. Captain McVay had committed suicide years after the sinking. The other survivors could defend him, though, and they wanted to clear his name. But how could they make the Navy listen? They’d been trying to for decades, without success. 

Could an eleven-year-old boy make a difference?

To make a long story short the answer is yes, he could – and he did. Hunter had put his Indianapolis History Fair Project on display in Congressman Joe Scarborough's local office. (This was in the days before Joe made a living bickering with Mika Brzezinski each morning on MSNBC). People started visiting Scarborough's office just to see the display, and eventually he offered to help Hunter and the Indianapolis survivors in their quest to clear Captain McVay’s name. Legislation that exonerated Captain McVay was drafted and introduced to Congress and eventually Hunter's and the Indianapolis survivors' persistence paid off. The legislation was passed and signed by President Bill Clinton.

I have only skimmed the surface of this story, but it really is a good one that’s an awesome reminder  of how just one person – even a kid – can make a difference in a world that I think we all can agree is getting crazier by the minute. It’s also a reminder to be thankful to our men and women who serve, past and present. As the saying goes, freedom isn’t free, and sometimes it’s easy to take their sacrifices for granted. 

For more on this story, I urge you to read Hunter’s book, Left for Dead.

It’s been years since I’ve read it, but it obviously has stuck with me.

Lastly, you might hearing a lot more about the U.S.S. Indianapolis in the coming months, as a movie is being made about it starring Nicholas Cage. However, as I researched for this blog post I came across another film that looks really interesting. Films by Serendipity has been interviewing survivors for the past ten years, allowing them to tell their stories and now made a documentary called The U.S.S. Indianapolis: The Legacy.  Very cool, if you ask me!

How a Writer's Decision to Give a Character Backstory Altered a Little Slice of WWII History: Part 2

If you missed Part One of this blog post, Click Here



So how did giving Quint backstory alter a slice of World War II history? According to an article from  Aintitcool.com, an uncredited writer working on the Jaws script decided Quint needed motivation for hating sharks so much. He came up with the premise that Quint had been a survivor of the U.S.S. Indianapolis.

But what’s that? you might say--as did Steven Spielberg. The story of the U.S.S. Indianapolis is one of tragedy, valor and incredible survival—and one of the biggest disasters in U.S. Naval history. She was a cruiser with a top secret mission—to deliver the components of the atomic bomb that would end World War II. But after she delivered her cargo to Tinian Island and made it to Guam, she was ordered to go to Leyte Gulf in the Philippines to prepare for the invasion of Japan. The captain asked for an escort but was denied, and tragically, as the Indianapolis crossed the Pacific waters, she was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine. It only took twelve minutes for the ship to sink, and those who survived the sinking were left to persevere in the water, fighting against thirst, hunger, exposure . . . and sharks. 

The true horror of the Indianapolis was that when the ship went down, no one was looking for her. Nobody missed her return. It is estimated that around 900 men survived the sinking. The men suffered at sea for not one day or two days, but for four nights and five days. By the time a passing plane found them by chance, the number of survivors had dwindled to a little over 300. 

For any shark fans out there (and I admit I love a good shark attack story, as morbid as that may be) the firsthand accounts from the survivors of the Indianapolis are both fascinating and terrifying. Men with fresh burns, covered in oil and floating with their buddies, watched the dorsal fins come and go, felt the sharks bump up against them and wondered who might be picked off next. The men huddled in groups, fending off the sharks and trying to resist the temptation to drink the salt water, which led to insanity and certain death. You read their stories and feel humbled by the tales of bravery and sacrifice, and I am incredibly grateful to these men who suffered so much as a result of defending our great country. 

Fast forward thirty years and actor Robert Shaw delivers Quint’s Indianapolis speech with perfection (redeeming himself from the previous day of shooting, where he thought he should drink to get into character and let's just say it didn’t work out so well).

Some say that this scene became Steven Spielberg’s favorite scene.

It was a powerful scene.

And it was this scene that an eleven-year-old boy watched in his living room years later, when he turned to his dad and asked, "Is that true?"

And so began a series of events that altered a slice of World War II history . . . 

Stay tuned . . .

How A Writer's Decision to Give a Character Backstory Altered a Little Slice of WWII History: Part 1

One of my all-time favorite movies is Jaws. It’s one of those movies I could watch over and over again, even though by today’s standards, old Bruce the mechanical shark is looking pretty fake. Plus, I already know what’s going to happen, so how is it I can watch it again and again?

Besides the camera angles that allow you to see what a shark might see as he’s contemplating lunch, and the crowded beach scenes filled with groovy-looking extras sporting style that would make Marcia Brady proud, Jaws is a great movie because of the authenticity of its characters.

There’s a saying in the writing world that there’s only a handful of plots in existence, (probably less if you’re watching Lifetime Television J), so when you write a story you’ve got to put your own twist on a common plot to make it unique. A way to do this is through characters--rich characters, memorable characters, characters that people can identify with.

But how does a writer develop authentic characters? One key ingredient to authentic characters is to know their backstory. Even if it never makes it into the final book (or script) a writer should at least have an idea of the previous events in a character’s life that have made them who they are. Why do they act the way they do? What are their motivations?

An uncredited writer of the movie Jaws decided that the character Quint, the salty shark hunter, needed a backstory. He needed to find some motivation for why Quint had such animosity for sharks. What no one realized at the time, is that this writer’s idea would set forth a series of events several years later that would impact a little slice of World War II history.

Stay tuned …