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thedrifter
02-11-09, 07:12 AM
Kevin Bacon visits Quantico to promote HBO film

By Julia LeDoux

Published: February 10, 2009

Marines take care of Marines, even and maybe most especially in death. You can ask retired Lt. Col. Mike Strobl of Quantico all about that.

Strobl volunteered to escort the body of a Chance Phelps, a 19-year old lance corporal who was killed in Iraq on April 9, 2004, from Dover Port Mortuary at Dover Air Force Base in Dover, Del., to his final resting place in Dubois, Wyo.

“The outpouring of gratitude and sympathy that I saw from ordinary Americans all across the country struck me as profound and I wanted to remember it so I captured it in a journal,” said Strobl, a Desert Storm veteran who recently retired from the Corps following a 24-year career.

The tale of Phelps’ final journey home, its impact on Strobl and the people he encountered along the way has been made into an HBO movie, “Taking Chance,” that will air on the cable network at 8 p.m. Feb. 21.

Based on the “trip report” that Strobl wrote about journey with Phelps, the movie was developed with the strong support of Phelps’ parents, John Phelps and Gretchen Mack.

“Chance was an awesome Marine,” Mack said, adding that the family gave HBO the green light to do the movie in 2006.

“We did that with one condition. We did not want it to be political. We wanted them to stick to the lieutenant colonel’s story of bringing Chance home. They did that,” she said.

HBO and Comcast hosted the Virginia premiere of the film during an invitation-only screening Tuesday night at Little Hall aboard Quantico Marine Corps base.

Lead actor Kevin Bacon, who portrayed Strobl in the movie; executive producer and screenwriter Ross Katz; Strobl; executive producers Brad Krevoy and Cathy Wischner-Sola; and HBO Films president Len Amato attended the premiere.

“It’s so far beyond political. It’s not right, its not left,” Katz said of the film, which he said tells the seldom-told story of the military’s policy of providing a uniformed escort for all casualties.

“The way these individuals conduct themselves is so remarkable that I felt a sense of shame that how can I be living in this country and not know,” he said.

Bacon said the script immediately drew him to wanting to do the movie.

“I didn’t know anything about the process of escort duty,” he said. “I think that most people are really surprised that so much care and so much detail is taken. I think Mike’s journey was fantastic in the way that he was able to not write just a basic report but actually talk about how he felt and how people reacted to him. It was very powerful writing.

“One of the most powerful things about it is you really start to relate to [Chance] not as a statistic, but as a real person,” Bacon said.

Phelps was killed by hostile fire in Al Anbar Province a month after being deployed to Iraq. He was posthumously awarded the Bronze Star with Combat Distinguishing Device for his actions during the ambush that led to his death.

“Chance Phelps was wearing his St. Christopher medal when he was killed on Good Friday,” Strobl wrote in his journal. “Eight days later, I handed the medallion to his mother. I didn’t know Chance before he died. Today, I miss him.”

Strobl filled about 20 pages with his observations of the people and experiences he had while on his journey with Chance Phelps. He shared the journal he called “Taking Chance” with his wife and co-workers following his return to Quantico.

“This is very special for me to be at Quantico tonight,” Strobl said. “These are a lot of the Marines I worked with when I did the duty.“

HBO executive producer Brad Krevoy learned about Strobl’s journal when he attended the funeral of a friend’s son who was also killed in Iraq. Krevoy contacted Strobl and, with the support of the Phelps family, brought the project to HBO. The movie was filed on location in New Jersey and Montana in 2007.

More information about Phelps and the movie can be found at http://www.hbo.com/films/takingchance.index.html.

“Taking Chance” has been nominated for a Sundance Film Festival 2009 “Grand Jury Prize.”

Ellie