This is all the information we have received as of June 1. The web page for the Association’s library is at http://www.theforumnorwich.co.uk/explore-the-forum/2nd-air-division-memorial-library.htm

The Virginia National Guard and Shenandoah University hosted a screening May 26 of the documentary "Bedford - The Town They Left Behind" at Shenandoah University. Soldiers from the Winchester-based 3rd Battalion, 116th Infantry Regiment were joined at the screening by members of the local community, including former Secretary of the Army and Winchester native John O. Marsh, D-Day veterans and family members of Soldiers who took part in the D-Day landings. The documentary producer and director were on hand to answer questions about the film. (Photo by Maj. Cotton Puryear, Virginia Guard Public Affairs)

Many thanks to LTC Bill Zana and his great team for arranging a very special BEDFORD screening at Shenandoah University last Wednesday, May 26. It was really a heartwarming and uplifting evening for Bob, Amy and I. We were honored that John Marsh, the longest running Secretary of the Army was in attendance, as were a number of other special guests: two Normandy veterans, a WW2 chaplain, a WW2 cryptanalyst and the daughter of Major Howie — the famous “Major of St. Lo.”

Directed by Joe Fab and Elliot Berlin, “Bedford: The Town They Left Behind” explores the universal issues of the costs of service to one’s country through the eyes of small-town Bedford, Virginia. Bedford lost more men per capita on D-Day, June 6^th 1944, than any other American town. The film also explores the lives of the new, fresh-faced members of that same unit sixty years later, as they are deployed to today’s conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq. This cross-generational story is a moving and thought-provoking look at the sacrifice of those who go to war, and those they leave behind.

“Bedford: The Town They Left Behind” was honored at the 2009 G.I. Film Festival and recently won the coveted Movieguide Faith and Freedom Award in Los Angeles.

For additional information about retailers, or to book a special screening of the film, please contact Amy D. Jones, ajones@thejgroup.com, 703-356-4004, or visit www.bedfordthemovie.com.

“Bedford: The Town They Left Behind”, Documentary, DVD, Directors: Joe Fab, Elliot Berlin, 71 minutes, March 23, 2010.

We are honored to announce that “Bedford: The Town They Left Behind” has been awarded the Faith and Freedom Award at the 2010 Movieguide Awards, held in Los Angles.

Listed among other very worthy nominees this year (”Taking Chance”, the History Channel’s “WW II in HD”), we are so grateful for this recognition among such powerful stories.

The Faith and Freedom Award is given to those films and programs that promote positive American values, and past awards have gone to projects such as “John Adams,” “Ratatouille,” and “Bella.”

-amy

Saturday morning. After a light breakfast of croissants and coffee at the central guest house, Patrick, Steffi, Mark, Carl, Joe C., and I were off for a very full day. We were joined by an American couple from a NATO base in Belgium, Juan and Bea. They came to Bastogne unaware that housing would be so hard to come by and were most fortunate to find a last-minute cancellation in our group of guest houses.

Mark and Steffi went to sell tickets for the film at the location that was also the start of the Bastogne Walk – a tradition in which visitors walk the historic Bastogne defense perimeter. Joe would ride with another friend of Patrick’s – Dominic – who looked after Joe with great care all weekend. Carl, Juan, Bea and I rode with Patrick.

My group stopped first at the Kasern, which is the military facility in Bastogne and the location of MacAuliffe’s Cave – the underground headquarters of the well-known general who, when told by the commander of the German forces to surrender or die, famously replied with a single word: “Nuts!” As we all know, the outcome of that confrontation was one of the great Allied victories and the conclusion of the Battle of the Bulge.

MacAuliffe’s Cave today has displays of photos of the Battle of the Bulge in rooms that simulate the place as it was then, with props, decorations and mannequins depicting the kinds of activities that occurred there – radio communications, medical care, etc. Touring the place with Carl was a special privilege for me. He certainly had memories of that campaign in his mind as he strode through the Cave in his WW2 clothing, covered in medals. We talked, he shared his recollections, and the air was thick with history.

Next my group headed for Libramont whose buildings look very much as they must have in the 1940’s and where a battle was to be elaborately recreated in the village’s vast fields. Snow was falling as we arrived, and we had to slog down a muddy hill to the viewing area. Joe and Dominic had joined us there, but unfortunately the start of the event was inexplicably delayed – for such a long time that we had to leave before it even began.

The snow let up as we went to another place, a rather large home with a few outbuildings where Patton stayed for a time. There were re-enactors everywhere, and it was also a point where we crossed the path of the Bastogne Walk.

The morning ended at a wreath-laying ceremony with cannons fire in a salute on the spot where Patton’s army and the 101^st met up to join forces. At this point I left my group and rode with Mark back into Bastogne to look for my friend Helen Patton, the famous general’s granddaughter and the person who so generously brought me and BEDFORD to Normandy this past June for the 65^th anniversary of D-Day.

We found Helen at Leo’s, which is a really delightful restaurant and gathering place. With her were her cousin Pat, a town official Madame Olivier, Paul Jacob, and the Belgian ambassador to Czechoslovakia. Mark and I joined their table and had a great visit. It turns out that Helen had been cooking up possibilities for a new doc that I want to consider. More on that once some due diligence has been done, but, if it comes to be, it would offer an opportunity to present an important angle on WW2 and a story that is not well-known.

There was a small parade down the main street and past the square that Mark, Helen and I watched until Helen realized she was supposed to be IN the parade and ran off to join it. A little later, Mark and I gathered on the street in front of the Town Hall for a tradition – the throwing of the nuts! MacAuliffe didn’t throw nuts, but it’s become a tradition just the same. Special guests are asked to go onto the balcony (picture the Casa Rosada, only not so ornate) and toss bags of walnuts down to the clamoring throngs below. It was no surprise to find that Helen was one of the nut tossers. Mark and I were spotted by Madame Olivier, who, with Helen, invited us inside. Her imprimatur was the equivalent of an all access pass, so we could run out to the street to see the nuts coming down and then back inside to watch the nuts being thrown and to sip coffee with the VIPs indoors at the “nut tossing” reception. (Yes, it was just as peculiar as it sounds!)

The day was really jam-packed: time to run back to our rooms and change for the evening.

Our next stop was the special dinner at the Nuts Café – a restaurant on the square. Then it was on to the pre-reception with invited guests, including the American ambassador to Belgium. After barely time for a beer, we boarded busses for the monument ceremony at the Mardasson, the memorial to the Bastogne conflict. I rode over with Monsieur Doutremont, who was here representing the Belgian resistance; his father was a figure in that movement.

The event was really quite nice, with remarks by certain dignitaries, music by a military band, and a sweet closing moment in which children led the veterans who were in attendance to the center of the circular monument and placed roses into slots in a special receptacle. When the roses were all in place, the word “Freedom” was spelled out.

I did manage to get a beer at the post-reception, and then it was time for the featured screening of BEDFORD. We had a very full auditorium – several hundred people – and once again, KAS sang. The audience response was very good. Afterwards, Helen joined me for the Q&A.

It had been a long day, and most everyone was ready to turn in. Mark and I had spoken Friday night about going out for drinks on Saturday, and we were still up for that. It was around midnight and, to my amazement, the restaurants on the square were all closed. I thought the crowds and the special occasion would have led them to stay open, but no. Mark and I found a not particularly welcoming bar on the square where we both stood out like sore thumbs. Nevertheless, we drank until close to three o’clock and talked about everything from how me met our wives to politics and current events. A late, late night, but I was grateful for it. Mark is a bright, funny, and sensitive person – a new friend.

[Well, there was no internet service where we stayed in Bastogne, so I’m writing this on Monday, having returned to Brussels]

On Thursday evening, a fellow named Mark Kitchell joined us at Patrick’s house. They have been friends for a few years, brought together during a project Patrick was researching and on which he has written a book. Mark took the other bed in my room at Patrick’s, so we had a chance to chat. He’s an American who grew up in a diplomatic corps family; he’s married to a French woman and lives in Amsterdam.

On Friday, I rode with Mark to Bastogne, and Patrick drove himself, Steffi, and Carl. It was about an hour and a half to Bastogne, where we met up with others who would figure into our weekend there. All of us stayed in a group of guest houses in Savy, which is just on the outskirts of Bastogne. Rooms have been booked for nearly a year in advance and they are much in demand. People are sharing rooms, so Mark and I bunked together again. (We were more fortunate than a pair of other fellows in our gang – we had single beds, they had to share one.)

It was a drizzly morning, but happily not too cold – probably about 40 degrees or so. There is a main square in the center of town, a crossroads, with a large parking lot framed by rows of restaurants and bars – many more than one would see in most towns of this size. Bastogne, as you’d imagine, is a tourist site. On the corner is a military shop where one can buy everything from WW2 era tins of footpowder like the GIs carried to authentic uniforms and weaponry. It was at this store that a veteran named Joe Cicherelli would largely be based for the next three days – Joe and Patrick have written a book about Joe’s experiences with the 551^st, and he will be signing and selling copies there.

In the afternoon, we went to check out the theatre where the BEDFORD screenings would be held. It’s in a large and old school building, which was constantly chilly. The whole facility is rather stark, but the auditorium has a certain warmth about it that the rest of the place lacks. The technical crew, hired by Patrick, surprised me with its professionalism and the quality of its gear – much better than I’d expected in a region where everything strikes me as being of the past. The lead technician, Didier, was wonderfully conscientious, and although we didn’t speak the same language, we were communicating very well after a day or so.

Dinner was at Maxim’s, a favorite of Patrick’s and Steffi’s, located on the town square. By now the population was growing as throngs of re-enactors were arriving and the whole of Bastogne began taking on a split personality: ghosts from the past intermingled on the sidewalks and in the restaurants and shops with locals still going about their daily affairs. The “re-enactor factor,” to coin a phrase, was a topic of much discussion through the weekend. What goes on with these folks who spend large amounts of time and money in order to parade about in period uniforms, brandishing guns and knives? Are they a respectful tribute to the veterans, or merely a large and elaborate sideshow of adults (and some children) playing dress-up? There’s no question that they add color and fascination to the goings-on, especially when they add tanks, period ambulances and other vehicles to the tableaux. But when older men with paunches and beards who weren’t part of the original war effort walk around in uniforms of the revered 101^st Airborne and other units, do they in some way dishonor the memory of the fit and clean-shaven heroes to whom the commemoration is meant to pay tribute? The re-enactor factor was a topic of opinionated comment all weekend long.

Friday night’s first Bedford screening was well attended – I would guess about 200 people roughly. Unfortunately, the facility manager for the school was gone and there were no lights on in the parking lot, at the entry and in some areas of the building. But we had a very enthusiastic crowd. The very lovely KAS (Kelly Ann Sproul) sang three songs before the film. Imagine that you’re back in 1942, perhaps at a USO show, and an attractive young woman with a feathered hat, a stylish shoulder-padded outfit, and seamed stockings stands at the microphone and soothes the troops with love songs. That’s KAS — she’s 23 years old and has for some time been building a following with her WW2 era persona and singing style.

Following the Q&A, we fell by the very popular Leo’s restaurant for a drink, and then all headed to our lodging and a good night’s sleep.

Amy

Joe Fab writes…

Today (Thursday, my second full day here), Patrick was kind enough to take me to get a new power supply for my Mac. I fried the one I had last night by accidentally plugging it into my travel convertor. There were actually sparks – and I’m lucky I didn’t damage the computer itself.

Then we went to the Royal Museum of the Army and Military History in downtown Brussels with Carl Dalke, a veteran of the Battle of the Bulge whose stories are absolutely awe-inspiring. The museum is in a phenomenal building of enormous proportions where the historical objects are displayed in a manner unlike I’ve ever seen before. Only twenty percent of the collection is on display at any one time, and the impression is of organized clutter – but only just barely organized. There are lots and lots of display cases, not particularly well lit, but filled with all sorts of fascinating artifacts from the military history of Belgium. Objects that clearly have value are hung all the way up the walls, which must be forty feet high or so. Groups of bugles, swords and more swords, and so on.

We paused for a little lunch and a school group was in the cafeteria. An impromptu talk by Carl was set up for the kids so they could hear a bit about his experiences in the 101^st Airborne at Bastogne. I videotaped it (as I did the Saint Nick event reported in my last blog) and hope I can get my act together to do a rough edit and post it. Probably no video posts will happen while I’m over here as the internet is being a challenge. It’s enough of an effort to get these posts done (thanks, Amy!).

The children were probably about 12 years old, and they listened with obvious interest as Carl spoke and Patrick translated into French. The privilege of being with people who have lived through such times, at such personal risk, is enormous. Later, we walked through the museum’s new exhibit tracing the history of World War II. I told Carl that it was a great honor to walk that timeline with him, and I meant it.

Tomorrow, we’re off to Bastogne. Tens of thousands of people are expected for the commemorative weekend of activities, which include one showing per day of BEDFORD. In the afternoon we will check out the theatre, prior to a 7:30 pm screening for those who don’t wait until Saturday to come to town.

I’ll be staying at a B&B which Patrick believes has internet service. If you see a post form me tomorrow night or Saturday, you’ll know he was correct!

Joe Fab writes…

I’ve arrived in Belgium, where my first few days will be spent in Brussels. I’m staying at the home of Patrick and Steffi Brion. Patrick is one of the principal committee members behind the 65^th commemoration of the Battle of the Bulge this weekend in Bastogne. His colleague on the team, Ed Lapotsky, saw BEDFORD: THE TOWN THEY LEFT BEHIND when we showed it in Normandy in June as part of the 65^th anniversary of D-Day. He approached me after the screening to ask if it could be the featured film (indeed, the only film) included at Bastogne.

Airfares were such that it made good economic sense for me to arrive here on Tuesday, even though we weren’t going to relocate to Bastogne until Thursday. Now we aren’t going until Friday, as the tech-in at the theatre needed to be switched to that day. The benefit is more time in Brussels with Patrick and Steffi — and a benefit it is indeed!

Tuesday, my day of arrival, was just a day of rest. Wednesday (yesterday) I went with Patrick to the military site here (he is part of the military and involved with Belgium’s extensive film archive that includes lots of great historical material). It was the Saint Nicholas celebration for the children there. The Belgian tradition is that Saint Nicholas comes over from his base in Spain, accompanied by his Moroccan helpers. It makes for quite a different visual than our American Santa and his elves. Santa’s costume is reminiscent of the old German Saint Nick pictures I recall seeing, with a tall hat like a church figure might wear. His clothing is altogether less ‘jolly old elf’ and more classic religious in style, but it’s still red and white. The helpers are African, wearing Moorish outfits rather than pointy shoes and caps – in fact, the helpers here were in blackface, looking like the African impersonators in old silent movies.

And so, I had a beer in the commissary where the children’s party was held, and watched as the names of the little ones were called out one by one. Each child then went for a few words with Saint N, but in point of fact they were motivated to collect the gift he would present to them and the bag of sweets from his politically incorrect assistant. I always enjoy the mix of excitement, curiosity and trepidation that accompanies a child’s interview with the man with the white beard. Some few of them were very much at ease, shook the gloved hand he offered them, responded to his questions about their conduct for the past year, and remembered to look grateful and say thank you before returning to their family table to rip open their package. More often their timidity was evident, overcome only barely and because the ritual clearly called for the child to go through this encounter if he or she hoped to get their hands on the goods. Only a few gave in to fear, and the ‘freakout factor’ was remarkably low.

I should write about the hospitality and really wonderful meals I’m enjoying with the Brions, but am at this very moment being called to dinner, so, dear readers, you’ll have to trust me on this. Tonight, as a result of my having mentioned my fondness for croque monsieur, that is what we are having to eat!