Ink Inc. Media Relations/PR

Ryan Gerding

On Bunions and battles

04.29.10

A quick search on Twitter found that in the last 48-hours, about 10 different people have “tweeted” about their bunions.  For all their ‘followers’ and the rest of the world to see.  Bunions.  We truly are a society that shares everything.  Our food, our sicknesses, our kids…everything.  24-hours a day, seven days a week, we tweet and Facebook and blog and tell everyone everything about everything.

I thought about that yesterday while watching a rough cut of a new documentary, “Hold At All Costs”.  We’re working with the filmmakers to help get the word out about the film.   It’s a tribute to the men and women who worked to defend Outpost Harry near the 38th Parallel during the Korean War.  Outpost Harry was the scene of a bloody, brutal 8-day battle between American, UN, and Greek forces and Chinese and North Korean soldiers.  It happened near the end of the Korean War as both sides were negotiating over where the line of demarcation would be between North and South Korea.  To prevent the Chinese and North Korean forces from occupying more land prior to the truce being announced, Allied orders were to protect and hold Outpost Harry “at all costs.”

The men and women in the film talk about the eight days of hell they went through on that hill in the summer of 1953.  The descriptions of horror and hope and bravery and friendship are engrossing.  What amazed me was one soldier saying that after the war he had never spoken to anyone about his experience at Outpost Harry for 50-years.  Not even to his wife.  Not once.  Wow.  We tell the entire world when we have eaten a good sandwich.  It took these folks 50-years to tell their own family about their involvement in what some say was the most significant battle in the Korean War.  Obviously it’s a lot easier to talk about sandwiches and sports and American Idol than it is to talk about the horrors of war.  So when the folks who fought in forgotten battles in a forgotten war decide to share their experience, it’s important that we take the time to listen.  And learn.  And appreciate the fact that because they don’t share every bit of the minutiae of their lives with everyone, when they DO decide to talk, they really have something important to say.

So take a few minutes, if you could, and watch the trailer to the film below.  Ironically, we’re working on a Facebook page for “Hold at All Costs”.  Click here to read an interesting Q&A with filmmaker Glenn Palmedo-Smith.  Check it out and share your own thoughts and stories.  And share this with your friends and followers.  It’s a way to pay tribute to these great people.  And it beats talking about bunions.

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