The Importance of a Seasoned Veteran’s Perspective
Cameras rolled last week in Lacey, WA to shoot a key scene with a retired Army combat veteran whose career intersected with people and events that are central to THE FIGHT TO FIGHT documentary film. This soldier’s experiences – before, during and after the historic moment when women were allowed to join infantry and armor ground combat units – brings a unique and valuable perspective to the film.
It must have felt like a world-shaking event to long-serving combat veterans when qualified women were allowed to join these units. Unlike other sectors in the U.S. military, which had gradually opened doors to women, the ground combat units maintained a strict all-male policy.
This changed in 2013, when the Department of Defense ordered a three-year period of study in preparation for removing the women’s ground combat exclusion policy in 2016. During this period, many women volunteered to see if they could pass the physical tests. Not all women succeeded but some did, and the era of all-male combat units began to change.
Men and Women Serving Together
Imagine how it must have felt to a veteran infantry soldier in 2013, especially one who had served two deployments to war zones in Iraq and Afghanistan and had been injured by an exploding IED.
Then imagine the soldier was not only a graduate of Ranger School, which is considered one of the toughest combat training courses in the U.S. military, but was an instructor at the school. In other words, the toughest of the tough.
How would a soldier like this react to women joining the ranks of the all-male ground combat units? What would he think of women entering the prestigious Ranger School and earning coveted Ranger tabs?
To find out the answers to these questions and many others, we flew a Santa Barbara film crew to Lacey to interview retired First Sergeant William “Stoney” Hall. His long and storied career gives him a unique voice in THE FIGHT TO FIGHT documentary. He had served in combat units across decades when women were officially excluded, and when the door finally opened to women, he had a front row seat.
On hand to help shoot the interview was Mark Romanov, the film’s outstanding editor and director of photography, and Johnny Harrington, cinematographer. Their work on site was amazing and deftly resolved a number of tricky challenges. I am certain the scenes shot with First Sergeant Hall will be highlights in the film.
Documenting Key Moments
Hall’s perspective was especially important to capture for the film because one of his assignments was to serve as First Sergeant in an infantry company commanded by a young, female, Ranger-tabbed Captain who is one of the key figures in the documentary.
Also of importance are Hall’s deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, which occurred when women soldiers could be “attached” to combat units but not classified as performing combat roles. Two of these courageous women in Hall’s units were killed in Hall’s units by IEDs during his deployments. The tragedy of women dying in combat without being recognized as serving in combat units was one of the motivations that led to removal of the combat exclusion policy.
I am deeply grateful for the time and effort Stoney Hall put into his interview and for the outstanding work done by our wonderful Santa Barbara film team. I look forward to working closely with these talented filmmakers over the next few months to shoot in Georgia, Alabama, Washington D.C., New York and possibly a few other locations.
The long-range goal is to complete principal shooting in the first six months of the year and finish editing and post-production by year’s end. None of this incredible work would be possible without the help of a great executive team, field team, and a network of supporters, veterans and donors, whose generous contributions have literally kept us going.
Joy Bronson served as a Naval Aviator from 1986 to 1993 and is the Director/Producer of THE FIGHT TO FIGHT documentary feature film.
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Shooting a Scene with Retired First Sergeant William “Stoney” Hall
A Santa Barbara film crew flew to Lacey, WA recently to shoot a key scene for THE FIGHT TO FIGHT documentary film. Shown above left is Army combat veteran Retired First Sergeant William “Stoney” Hall. Hall’s experiences before, during and after the historic moment when women were allowed to join ground combat units brings a unique and valuable perspective to the film. In the foreground is Mark Romanov, the film’s editor and director of photography. Johnny Harrington, the shoot’s cinematographer, is above right.