Military 'campaign' with soccer balls highlighted in new DVD

Body counts, body bags and body parts make up far too much of the news from the Middle East for a Utah filmmaker, so Brady Tuckett is working on a new feature about the soccer ball and school book campaigns the U.S. military has conducted.

The project is called "The War Within a War – Tales from the 222" and is about the good things that have been happening between U.S. soldiers and the people whose homeland has been divided and destroyed by war.

It's a story that isn't being told now, Tuckett told WND recently. "The mainstream media just wants to see the damage."

This will focus instead on the compassion of the American people who are dispatched to the war zone, their charity when they get there, he said.

"It's just meant to tell the other side of the story," Tuckett's wife, Susan, told The Spectrum.

The website for Majorscale Productions said the media's "obsessively negative coverage" doesn't show the "sensitive portrait of the lives and struggles" that are involved in the war.

Because of the filmmaker's location in Cedar City, Utah, the DVD focuses on the region's historic 2nd Battalion, 222nd Field Artillery of the Utah National Guard, which has served in the Mexican-American War, World War II, the Korean Conflict and Iraq.

National Guardsman with Iraqi children

"One neighborhood sacrificed their money and time in getting soccer balls and shirts and a local company donated soccer uniforms to send," Tuckett said, and the result was a stack of crates of athletic equipment that soldiers handed out to children they encountered.

The soldiers weren't even able to keep track of how much they were giving away, he said.

"One of the guys said they always had stuff in the back of the Humvee, so if they ever were in a situation with kids, they would have some."

Tuckett said other campaigns have involved water supplies, generators and other needs.

"There are all kinds of stories, nobody ever talks about it, school rebuilding, that kind of thing," he said.

Tuckett said the story also is about the people, the interaction, the human story.

"Obviously these are National Guard soldiers. It's not a fulltime job for them," he told WND.

"We follow several members of the 222nd as their interviews describe the war in Iraq that is not talked about by the national media. Behind the obvious bombings, destruction, and brutality, there is a battle being fought that is abounding with miracles, compassion, and charity," the company said.

"I think it's very important that these soldiers have a chance to tell their story," National Guard Cmdr. Lt. Col. Richard Miller told The Spectrum.

Majorscale Productions was founded in 2001 to produce films "based upon truth."

"We are convinced that there are many great and important stories to tell, most of which will never be picked up by the media," the company said.

"I consider myself a patriot. I'm pretty proud to be an American. But everything I read in the news was something that's no good," Tuckett told WND. But then he heard from some of the soldiers and their families. "I was inspired by all the service that was going on."

The DVD is scheduled for release Oct. 1 or shortly after, Tuckett said, and information about ordering is available on the company company website.

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