Film shines light on war’s gray areas

NC Advertiser/Hersam Acorn ^ | 10/22/2009 | Justin Reynolds

[Saije]

A resident will take his first step into the ethical morass of war tonight...with a cinematic debut that explores “what you have to do to come home alive.”

In April 2006, amid heavy fighting, seven Marines and one Navy corpsman were given orders to capture a known insurgent in the Iraqi village of Hamdania, located west of Baghdad. The group kidnapped and killed the insurgent’s cousin, Hashim Ibrahim Awad, instead.

The eight involved in the incident — the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment Kilo Company — became known as the Pendleton 8 and were held at Camp Pendleton before charges were filed. Those included conspiracy, kidnapping, making false official statements and assault, among others.

None of the Marines served more than 15 months in prison except for Lawrence Hutchins III, squad leader, who received a 15-year sentence, which has since been reduced to 11 years and is up for appeal next year.

The controversy over whether the troops were indeed guilty of their charges inspired 1994 New Canaan High ...graduate Douglas Stewart and Wilton resident Don Sikorski, both 33, to document the incident and ensuing investigation with their film “Article 32.” The name refers to the United States Uniform Code of Military Justice definition of an Article 32, which is a hearing that determines whether a soldier’s actions warrant criminal charges.

Stewart told Hersam Acorn Newspapers last week that the film — shot in the U.S. and Iraq — explores the incident from the dual perspective of the soldiers and the Iraqis.

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“There weren’t explicit orders for them to take out an insurgent, but there were kind of implicit orders,” Stewart continued. The incident was “boiled down to a headline when the media originally covered it but it’s a much more complicated case. That’s the crux of our film.”

[Saije]

Doesn't sound like a hatchet job at least.