By: Alexander Campisi, Staff Writer
The Military Film Series is a one month tradition celebrating the University’s 40 year relationship with the military. The University has been catering to military families through education and outreach for four decades.
On Tuesday, Jan. 15, in the boardrooms, the newest installment to the film series was played. Dr. Jack McTague oversaw the showing. “The history department puts together the military film series events and they always show movies relevant to military history,” he said. This is the third movie in the series.
The movie shown was “We Were Soldiers” (2002) directed by Randal Wallace starring Mel Gibson. It is based on a book called We Were Soldiers Once… and Young, written by Lieutenant General (Ret.) Hal Moore and Joseph L. Galloway. “We Were Soldiers” follows the drama before and during the Battle of La Drang specifically at landing zone X-Ray in The Vietnam War on Nov. 14, 1965. The authors of the original book were actually present at the battle of La Drang. At the end of the movie, before the credits, a few slides are shown remembering the names of those who fought and died in landing zone X-Ray.
These kinds of movie series are good to have on campus because when chosen carefully the movies provide a sort of supplemental education outside of the classroom. The respective departments are made up of teachers and staff members, as well as student organizations. Most students said they were there for extra credit in various classes, but regardless of what class they were trying to get extra credit for, they all enjoyed the movie.
Some students did not know of the event beforehand.
“I usually don’t read all of the news e-mails that Saint Leo sends because there are just so many of them every day; it’s easier to just skim through them,” said Christian Nevola, who did not attend.
If an educational event appears that is relevant to one’s field of study in the classroom and the teacher has not mentioned it, bring it to their attention and see if they will offer extra credit for attendance. In most cases they will say yes, and it will help support a student organization that needs it as well.
