About The Series
The 20th Century has ended. It was an extraordinary one hundred years beginning under gaslight and concluding with interplanetary exploration. Human beings have acquired vast new knowledge and achieved beyond the wildest imaginings of their 19th Century antecedents.
The 20th Century saw conflict and destruction on a scale never before contemplated as our ability to destroy militarily increased by the decade. Culminating in nuclear power, mankind has devised ingenious new technologies to defeat its enemies and gain unconditional surrender.
One element has not changed, however, from the days of the Roman legionnaire, the Hundred Year's War or the American Civil War. Men still confront death on the field of mortal combat learning the age old maxim, kill or be killed. As those who preceded them discovered, the combatants of World War II realized the life-changing agony of killing and surviving, a discovery that separates them forever from the rest of mankind. It is a secret they share with warriors throughout the ages.
World War II was the 20th Century's most significant single event. It altered forever the lives and fortunes of nations and individuals and its echoes will ripple through time for generations to come. It will take its place among the signal occurrences of all recorded history . . . yet its voices have not been heard. While we know what the generals and politicians were thinking and the actions they took during the war, the men of America, the "common clay" that faced the ultimate horror, have not been heard from and are leaving life's stage without bearing full witness. Their departure in silence would be a tragedy and must not be allowed to occur.
The American Hero documentary film series rectifies this omission while defining the essence of combat. Only by attempting to comprehend what the soldiers of World War II experienced in their souls can America know, for the first time, what so many have carefully kept hidden. Most do not speak of their war to their friends and families. Only they know the nature of the excruciating crucible through which they passed. If America will now but listen, their testimony can change the future for all of us.
The goal of the American Hero film series is to offer a legacy for the 21st Century, an epitaph of truth told by those who were there. We know that their evidence, presented with absolutely authentic film, still photographs, and personal memorabilia is riveting to young and old alike. Instead of seeing old men bearing old wounds and campaign medals, they see and hear a truth that brings rapt attention, teas, and a desire to know what this legendary time was all about.
We constantly hear from veterans of the war that the historians are not getting the story of the war "right" and the people "not getting it at all." It would indeed be a disaster if the faces and memories leave us without passing on their perceptions of their role in the cataclysm that shook the world. We give them that opportunity.