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Memoirs of a hollywood soldier 3235
- 1. 4 Deployment to “The PACIFIC” 8 November 2007: 0930 hrs We filed onto the two waiting minibuses, and were quickly driven up to the set via a series of interconnecting dirt roads. During this time I discovered why the military build everything from scratch. Civilian vehicles (especially ones of the rent-a-car breed) are totally unsuited to soldiers. We bumped our helmeted heads on the doorway and ceiling of the bus, totally misjudging our height. We got our rifles and webbing caught on people, doors, seats, and seat belt buckles. Our boots had large studded nails (called hobnails) protruding from the soles so as we moved around, we scratched everything that wasn’t covered and made a terrific racket. Hobnails would also trap mud, so when we got onto the bus, we brought that onto the floors and the seats as well, transforming the gleaming white van into a steel bucket of filth. Arriving at a clearing on the side of the road, we disembarked and marched in single file about a hundred metres to a small open camouflaged marquee to the side of a dirt The extra’s waiting area. Setups like this exist on every movie set with the exception that most sets don’t force its extras to have coffee next to a body part bin.
- 2. on the set of THE PACIFIC | 34 track. It was already a hot, dry day and a small cloud had formed from our marching, covering us in more dirt. Once we arrived, we met up with the A-Corps Japanese whom we’d seen earlier in the change rooms. It wasn’t long before we made our presence felt. The A-Corps troops sat diligently cross-legged engaging in small games of strategy or exercising. Our B-Corps troops arrived, sighed loudly and dropped to the ground like we’d just finished the Bataan death march. Some of our guys wandered here and there, joking, and gasping at the sights and sounds of the movie set; generally acting like the green recruits we were. I heard a shout in Japanese and it was immediately obvious that one of us had provoked the ire of Sergeant Yutaka, as he was giving a B-Corps recruit a severe dressing down. The extra had taken off all his webbing, dropped it on the ground along with his rifle and left them unattended. In the world of the military, every man was responsible for his kit and his weapon as they protected him from harm and death…at least that’s what he was being told by the Sergeant. After a lengthy tirade, he ordered the offender to do fifty pushups. This clearly did not sit well with our B-Corps man who obviously thought the job he’d signed up for was going to be like shooting another Baskin Robbins ice cream commercial. Ego bruised but not defeated, he whined a challenge. “Come on, you wouldn’t do push ups for something as stupid as leaving your stuff on the floor!” Yutaka’s face became classic Samurai, the kind you see in many Japanese movies where the warrior looks surprised for a split second, then his eyes become ablaze and fixed to his target. Without averting his gaze, he shouted a command in Japanese, and as one, the Marines practicing their war faces, at a friendly game of poker during down times on set.
- 3. Memoirs of a Hollywood Soldier | 35 twenty plus A-Corps soldiers got onto their feet from whatever they were doing, stood to attention and shouted “Hai!”, before falling to the ground, and as one oiled machine, started doing pushups. Yutaka towered over our extra now and demanded, “You-a do pushups now!” Clearly overwhelmed, with his young ego mashed into miso soup, he very slowly and reluctantly began his pushups. As amusing as this may seem, I’m sure I speak for most of the B-Corps boys when I say that we were all appalled that one of our own were being humiliated in front of the whole movie set, even if it was his own fault and he had back- chatted the Sergeant. I didn’t even know the guy, but found myself on the ground doing the pushups as well, providing the psychological support. He made it after much effort, with three of us helping him along. He then collected his kit and walked off in a huff. I don’t ever remember seeing him again. Push ups were often dispensed to those who didn’t take soldering quite as seriously as the Sergeants did.