I thought David Taylor’s project was dead. I put the possibility of a documentary out of my mind and continued my research for my Fallujah book. Then, to my amazement, Mr. Geoffrey Thorpe-Willett sent me an unsolicited email. He had been a free-lance video cameraman with an ABC news crew during Operation Phantom Fury. He asked me if I was interested in seeing the eleven hours of unedited footage he had taken in Fallujah.
I told him that I would very much like to see his footage, but there was a problem. Geoff lives in France and his recordings were in PAL format and were not compatible with American television sets. He told me that he only had the originals and offered to mail them to me if I promised to get them back to him. I did and he mailed me his only copies.
I had no way of viewing the European formatted tapes, so I started searching for someone who had the proper equipment. I found a television studio here in Orlando that wanted to charge me $50/tape (there were eleven tapes) to convert them to a format that I could view. However, during the process of getting the quote, I had the opportunity to scan the tapes. They were amazing!
I found a company in Chicago that offered to convert the tapes for about $150. I FedEx’d them the tapes and within two weeks I had them back with additional copies on disc that I could view. Then, David Taylor called.
He had found another source of funding and his documentary project was back on track. I told David about Geoff’s video. He was still intent on telling the story of the battle for Nasiriyah but as we got deeper into the project, we found that there was no High Definition video available from Nasiriyah—there was little or no video at all. Once David viewed Geoff’s video, he decided to redirect the focus of his documentary to Operation Phantom Fury.
He asked me to suggest stories that he could tell. I had already interviewed many participants of the fight in Fallujah, including Sergeant Jason Arellano who was the subject of much of Geoff’s filming. I introduced David to Jason, Lindsey, Jeremiah Workman, Dr. Richard Jadick, Kristine Knight, Todd Desgrosseilliers and LtGen Richard Natonski. Thus, many of the stories in Perfect Valor are pulled directly from the pages of New Dawn.
Lindsey and Jason Arellano, me, and LtCol Todd Desgrosseilliers
Perfect Valor premiered at the 2009 GI Film Festival and won the best full-length documentary film award for 2009. All the stars were there, LtCol Todd Desgrosseilliers, Lindsey and Jason Arellano, Dr. Richard Jadick and his wife, Kristine Knight, Dan Hodle, and Jeremiah Workman. It was a wonderful night, a night I will never forget.
You were introduced to Jason and Lindsey Arellano, Jeremiah Workman, Dr. Richard Jadick, Kristine Knight and Todd Desgrosseilliers in Perfect Valor. All of their stories are told in full in New Dawn. As an example, Jeremiah Workman fought in a house full of insurgents for about thirty minutes. But, Todd Desgrosseilliers fought with these insurgents for six hours. New Dawn tells the entire story of the enemy’s last stand within the city. Perfect Valor tells the riveting story of Jason Arellano being nearly killed in another insurgent-filled house, but does not tell the story of the most disastrous fight for Arellano’s battalion—for the Marines—in Fallujah. Five Marines were killed in that fight and dozens wounded. New Dawn tells the complete story. New Dawn also introduces you to LtGen Richard Natonski, a true gentleman and fearless Marine commander.
If you enjoyed Perfect Valor, you will want to read New Dawn: the Battles for Fallujah.
