There’s a distinct crack when a real shot goes off.  The “snap” from the bullet breaking the sound barrier is hard to recreate. The SEALs-Bandito Brothers match-up delivered for the SOF community by doing such scenes right. Act of Valor (AOV) is the most technically sound film about Special Operations.

From a Call of Duty couch, the life of a SEAL or SOF Operator seems exciting. But in the real world the bullets rip flesh from your body and there are real consequences. Lives are at stake.

Act of Valor nails it.

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In an era when African-Americans were treated like sub-humans, a group of African-Americans were flying the most advanced technology the U.S. military had to offer.

These WWII-era pilots, along with support crew, are known as the Tuskegee Airmen. Although there were a number of Tuskegee units in the Army Air Corps, the units who flew red-tailed P-51 Mustangs are the best known.

They are also the subject of George Lucas’s new WWII extravaganza Red Tails, Starring Cuba Gooding Jr. and Terrence Howard.

Visually, it's appealing. Action scenes? Great. Everything else?

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For thousands of years, horses defined military land power, mobility, logistics and tactics. Yet, decades before motorized vehicles, including tanks, appeared on the battlefield, it was clear to almost all, except it seems cavalry officers, that the era of combat horse brigades, and charges, was over.

Accurate artillery and rapid-firing rifled small arms swept cavalry off the field at Balaclava during the ill-fated British "Charge of the Light Brigade" during the Crimean War against Russia in the mid-1850s. One hundred and thirteen men died in the charge that produced no decisive gains and resulted in unacceptably high cost, with a ratio of casualties to survivors of 1.5 to 1.

Over 330 horses were killed. That charge, immortalized by Alfred, Lord Tennyson's epic poem, "The Charge of the Light Brigade," prompted French Marshal Pierre Bosquet to state "C'est magnifique, mais ce n'est pas la guerre" ("It is magnificent, but it is not war)" and "C'est de la folie" (It is madness"). Russian commanders were reported to have initially believed that the British cavalrymen must have been drunk to attempt it.

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The summer I was twelve, I was marooned in bed for a week with scarlet fever. I can still remember how bored I was. My father bought me something to read. I remember him handing me a paperback book with a photo of the burning USS Arizona emblazoned on the cover. The photo was a red-orange color. The title read Day of Infamy, and the author was identified as Walter J. Lord.

I devoured the book, the first paperback edition. It was unique, the first narrative history I had ever read that focused on the experiences of individual participants of all ranks and stations, the first built almost entirely from short vignettes drawn from one-on-one contact between the author and people who had lived the events.

By that time in my young life, I had taught myself to type, and I had been experimenting with writing. I had not focused on a topic, but I had heard the call.

At some point, halfway through the book, I had my Eureka moment: This is what I want to do with my life. This is what I wanted to write, and this is how I wanted to write it.

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On the opening day of the Clint Eastwood-directed biopic about J. Edgar Hoover, I raced to the matinee, something I have not done since Mr. Eastwood’s spaghetti westerns were a must-see staple of the Saturday afternoons of my youth. I’m in final edits on a non-fiction book featuring Hoover and couldn’t deny the Eastwood-Hoover combination.

Hoover’s uniquely bizarre and lengthy career as the nation’s top cop presented Eastwood and writer Dustin Lance Black with tremendous challenges.

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CP Note: Thank you to Howard "Mad Max" Mullen, owner of Tactical MilSim Magazine, for sharing his upcoming Dalton Fury interview with us. His full interview will run via Tacitical MilSlim in a few days.

MMM: You are the Military Advisor for the [just-released] Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. Word on the street is that you are the man behind Sandman’s cool.

DF: Where the heck did you hear that? Partially true I guess. Working with the COD folks has been a true privilege. Talk about talent and energy, especially the extraordinary people at Sledgehammer Games. They aren’t just digigeeks. These folks are true professionals, don’t half step, and went to great lengths to pursue the most realistic military experience for their players. I was simply brought in to help the very talented writer Will Staples with the dialogue of the Delta assault team.

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