One of the veterans of the ambush in Sadr City in April 2004 has revealed that National Geographic’s film The Long Road Home is a shameful piece of propaganda that butchers history and ignored offers of help from the squad who were actually in the firefight in order to present a bastardised and propagandistic version of events.
In response to my latest article on the film series, Duncan Koebrich posted several tweets that tear into The Long Road Home, especially the writer Mikko Alanne.
The series has been psychologically traumatic, to put it mildly, for those of us who lived through that ambush. The writer blames "creative license" for the Starship Troopers without the bugs piece of propaganda he delivered. I'm getting livid just thinking about what @NatGeo did
— Duncan Koebrich (@DuncanKoebrich) April 11, 2019
"The writer" is too generous a descriptor for @MikkoAlanne. He produced propaganda, he delivered versions of dead soldiers to their families which are preferential to the reality known by their squadmates, he ignored my willingness to contribute as well of that of my entire squad
— Duncan Koebrich (@DuncanKoebrich) April 11, 2019
It appears Koebrich’s entire squad offered to help make the series more accurate, but were ignored by the writer who preferred to tear up the real lives and deaths of these soldiers because it didn’t suit the story he wanted to tell. That the Pentagon provided such extensive (even subsidised) support to the film only emphasises how callous they are towards their own veterans.
Koebrick also corrected the record, explaining that Colonel Gary Volesky did not lead the rescue convoy into battle, as portrayed in the series, and that it was company commander Captain Lewis whose valour was stolen.
Our battalion commander did not lead our convoy into battle. That valor belongs to Captain Lewis, our company commander. If G. Volesky officially approved of his being depicted as having that honor, it becomes stolen valor rather than just valor imbued by Mikko's creative license
— Duncan Koebrich (@DuncanKoebrich) April 11, 2019
Since the events of Black Sunday, Volesky’s star has risen and he is now commander of I Corps and of Joint Base Lewis-McChord. In the series he is portrayed by Phil Strub lookalike Michael Kelly.
Left: Michael Kelly Right: Phil Strub
I could go on, I have gone on about these things before.
There is deep fuckery afoot that personally concerns our woefully not useful-to-propagandists' existential perspective. @MikkoAlanne must shit his pants to know we-who-don't-do-for-money are out there, whom he has wronged.— Duncan Koebrich (@DuncanKoebrich) April 11, 2019