Valour-IT: Team ARMY and movie stars?

Team ARMY has the best stories. From Susan Katz Keating (Team ARMY, of course!) comes this:

Monday, November 8, 2010

Airborne Meets Garry Owen: Of Extras, Movie Stars, and VALOUR-IT

The Movie Extra takes 5

The VALOUR-IT fundraising drive is progressing wildly forward, pulling in serious bucks... but needing more. My own fundraising unit, Team Army (natch) made goal first, but now those hard-charging Marines are in the lead. Still... we are smokin'. The We Were Soldiers double-autographed book (signed by both Joe Galloway and Gen. Hal Moore) has hit $227.50, with a couple more days to go. So... to encourage more bidding, here is a fun backstory related to WWS.

Remember our paratrooper friend, Tyler Grogan, (AKA Tug), formerly of the 82nd Airborne? He was an extra in the WWS movie! The producers still are looking for him, hoping to get Tug and his Fair Maiden to sign on as movie stahs, but the Mister-n-Missus are way too busy being sweethearts to bother with such frivolities. Nevertheless, Tuggie was kind enough to tell me about his brush with Big Hollywood.

Says Tug:

"So, when I was in basic training, Mel Gibson, Sam Elliot, and company went through and did the training we did while preparing for this movie. They were supposed to use an active unit from the 3rd ID, I think, to be extras in a part of the movie. Well, that unit backed out so the producer called my basic training company and asked if we could do it."

It was almost like.... that soda fountain incident where Big H discovered sum'body-or-other (yes, I know exactly who it was, but this is a blog about people who do something with their lives).

Continues Tug:

"The entire company was outside cleaning weapons and gear because we had just finished our final FTX and were to graduate in less than a week. I remember the drills coming out of their office telling everybody to QUICKLY turn in all the weapons and gear and we all had 30 seconds to go upstairs and put on underwear."

Uh.... 'scuse me?

Says Tug: "Most of us stopped wearing underwear because crawling around in the sand with that elastic waistband isn't a good combo."

Well, now. Who knew? So anyways... the guys took care of that situation, and off they went...

The story gets better, and you can find it all, and the connection to Valour-IT, here. You won't want to miss this one. Trust me!