It’s 1942 when a bright, but naive 17-year-old high school dropout volunteers for the Army only to find the Jim Crow life he desperately wants to escape so embedded in military culture his unit’s dangerous D-Day mission is jeopardized by the very soldiers they’re charged with protecting. It’s “Men of Honor” (2000) meets “Red Tails.” (2012)
In development, this highly acclaimed screenplay tells the story of the 320th Barrage Balloon Battalion, one of the more unique of World War II. Their heroics have largely been wiped from the annals of history by the U.S. military. Many friends and family of 320th veterans refused to believe they participated in the D-Day invasion. As a result, most kept their stories to themselves. Tom Hanks from Saving Private Ryan fame and someone steep in military history admitted he hadn't heard of the group at a French award ceremony commemorating the 65th Anniversary of D-Day in 2009, where he met our real life protagonist, 320th Corporal Bill Dabney.
