Allan Duffin - Writer/Producer

Farewell, Rocco

It's been such a strange and tragic month. While Michele and I were out of town for the funeral of one of our family members, I received word that I'd lost a friend who was serving a combat tour in Afghanistan. Rocco Barnes was one hell of a guy. In addition to working on film and television projects, he was also a U.S. Army Reservist. Excerpting from his obituary in the Los Angeles Times:

Maj. Rocco M. Barnes was supposed to be back home in Los Angeles this summer at the end of his fourth overseas tour with the California Army National Guard. But the 51-year-old entertainment company executive was killed June 4 in Afghanistan, the victim of what officials described as a vehicle rollover.

An Ohio native selected for the elite Special Forces, he served two tours in Iraq and two in Afghanistan. Friends say he was driven by his passion for both the military and the movie business.

As a young man, Barnes worked as a coal miner before getting into the security field. He  provided security for [Arnold] Schwarzenegger on the sets of "True Lies" and "Collateral Damage," and was head of West Coast operations for the security company Vance International before beginning his career in entertainment.

Although he was quiet about his military activities, friends said, Barnes was in the thick of combat. About two weeks before his death, he was part of a team that cleared the way for the landing of a helicopter that airlifted a severely burned, 22-month-old Afghan boy to emergency care.

I had the privilege of working with Rocco on several TV projects and always appreciated his quiet confidence, warmth and camaraderie. He was modest about all he had done and all he was doing, and my heart breaks to know that he's gone.

(Obituary in the Los Angeles Times, written by Steve Chawkins)
(Details on Rocco's last mission, from AfghanistanMyLastTour.com)

Handmade for Baby

If you're looking for new clothes for your munchkin, I'd like to introduce you to a friend's business, Handmade for Baby.

"Handmade for Baby" designs begin with the practical needs expressed by my friends and colleagues who are mothers to infants and toddlers. Add concepts based on images from my childhood, observations from nature and studies in childhood development. Then, using ecologically responsible and ethically produced materials, I produce the various pieces you see in this shop.

Custom orders can also be placed via this site.  So, if there's a piece with the right idea but you need it tweaked to suit the little one in your life, get in touch with me through Etsy and let's create something beautiful to welcome and nurture baby.

Anak takes a lot of care in everything she does, so give her online store a look. Thanks! Expanding her line, she'll be introducing doggie clothes in the near future.

The Baseballs

I wonder what Brian Setzer thinks of this? A German trio called The Baseballs takes current pop hits and rearranges them as rockabilly tunes. It's a lot of fun. Even songs I don't like in their original form become really enjoyable when The Baseballs take a crack at them.

Click here for their YouTube page -- try their version of Katy Perry's "Hot 'n' Cold." Meantime here's the video for their version of Rihanna's "Umbrella." I dare you not to bop along!

On the deaths of two Air Force Academy graduates

Friday brought us the heartbreaking news that another member of the American military died in a combat zone. Roslyn L. Schulte, a 25-year-old first lieutenant in the Air Force, died from wounds sustained in a roadside bomb attack as she was traveling in a convoy in Kabul, Afghanistan. Schulte was a 2006 graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

What hit me most about this event — aside from the tragedy of losing another military member to the ravages of war — is that it reminded me of another female Academy graduate who was lost during a deployment. The difference: that victim was a high school classmate of mine. We'd both entered the Air Force at about the same time, but her job very quickly took her overseas into a combat zone.

On April 14, 1994, First Lt. Laura Piper — who, like Roslyn Schulte, was also just 25 years old — was one of 26 people aboard a flight of two Army Black Hawk helicopters over Iraq. Two Air Force F-15 fighters mistakenly shot down the helicopters in a friendly-fire incident that is still vividly remembered today. 

The aftermath of the tragedy compelled Laura's mother to write a book, Chain of Events, which accused the military of pulling up short on its post-accident investigation and disciplinary actions against the personnel involved in the cascade of decisions that led to the shootdown. "[Laura] knew what she was doing," Laura's father told the New York Times. "She knew the danger. She was there to protect the Kurds. And I think she's a hero."

Regardless of how and why these deaths occurred, at the heart of the matter is the fact that we lost two young people who were just beginning their  careers. More than that, as they were barely three years out of college, Schulte and Piper were just beginning their lives as individuals, on their own, each with unique talents to contribute. We'll never know what they might have accomplished if they'd been able to live out their lives as intended. They certainly deserved to, and now never will.

(Click here for CNN report on Roslyn Schulte)
(CBS News report on Laura Piper)

World War II bombers experience High Noon Over Haseluenne

My friend Mike Faley, the historian for the 100th Bomb Group (WWII) and a big help on my Twelve O'Clock High book, has authored a brand-new volume about WWII B-17 raids on Berlin, Germany in March 1944. High Noon Over Haseluenne, published by Schiffer Publishing, is available at Amazon.com. Here's a summary from Mike:

“Let’s go Lieutenant; your crew is scheduled to fly.” That's how pilot Robert Shoens was awaken on a cold March morning in 1944. Little did he know that by the day’s end, many of the bunks in his hut would be empty and this mission would forever be synonymous with his crew.

The date was March 6, 1944, and the Eighth Air Force was launching a full scale assault on the German capital of Berlin. High Noon over Haseluenne is a  look at one bomb group that flew the mission -- and the catastrophic results that ensued. The book deals with the 100th Bomb Group, “The Bloody Hundredth” and the mission that solidified that moniker.

The concentrated attacks by the Luftwaffe would destroy 69 American Bombers that day -- the single highest loss for any mission by the 8th Air Force. Fifteen of those losses would come from the 100th Bomb Group.

Lt Robert Shoens is our guide.  His story, and that of many other 100th BG crewmen, puts you in the melee that followed the head-on attacks by over 100 German Me109’s & FW190’s. We take you inside the men and machines that had to brave one of the deadliest air battles of World War II. High Noon over Haseluenne is filled with firsthand accounts, personal diaries, letters home, news clippings and over 200 photos. The book is capped off by a one hundred page historical appendices compiled by noted 8th AF researcher Paul M. Andrews (Project Bits and Pieces).

"Tanker Down!" In Towing and Recovery Footnotes

My new article in the April 2009 issue of Towing & Recovery Footnotes talks about recovery techniques for tanker trucks that have been involved in an accident. The photo at the left shows towers practicing with air cushions to right an overturned tanker. Towing expert Wes Wilburn explains:

Wilburn notes that air cushions were placed starting at the rear and working forward. And once the job is done, towers should take extra care with their air cushions. “Having the air cushions stored away properly after the last job really dictates how the next job will go,” says Wilburn. “I am not only talking about having them cleaned up, which should be obvious to most. What I believe is critical is how they have the air removed and how they are ‘tucked,’ so to speak.” Wilburn recommends that towers tuck three sides of each cushion and let the side with the hose stay untucked. “From my experience, this works much better,” he says.

"Red Dwarf" returns!

More than 20 years after its initial season hit the airwaves in the United Kingdom, "Red Dwarf" is back with three new episodes. They'll air on the Dave channel overseas. Anyone know when we'll be able to see the show over here?

A sitcom of sorts set in space, "Red Dwarf" features fun characters that have been popular for nearly two decades. I first saw the show on a local PBS channel and thought, "What the hell am I watching?" The show was different, weird — and funny.

A clip from the upcoming three-episode series that will air from April 10-12 in the U.K.:

Patrick Duffy and the Crab discuss Facebook

Random strangeness, starring actor Patrick Duffy and a puppet crab. Courtesy Adam Donshik.

Just a thought on book writing

I'm heading toward the deadline on my new book Policewomen: A History in Blue, which Kaplan Publishing is scheduled to release this fall. I'm taking a quick break from editing to make a point here: I'm really, really grateful for advances in technology and how they make the research process much . . . well, for lack of a better word, easier.

Conducting interviews, scouring through archival materials, and sitting in the library rifling through books and microfilm—these methods will probably always be a part of the research process. I'm using all of them on this book. But what I'm grateful for at this moment is the ability to search through newspapers and magazines by using the Internet.

I know, I know, it's not like this is some incredible thing that just happened last week. After all, I use Internet searches on a regular basis for TV and feature scripts, magazine and newspaper articles. Googling is a given.

What I'm talking about is the ability to do much more extensive and faster research, thanks to the Internet. Back in the day I fondly recall crouching in front of a microfilm reader in the basement of the Boston Public Library for weeks on end, searching for those tidbits of information that would make all the difference. I still sit in front of microfilm and microfiche readers when it's necessary (or when it's the only way to locate something, since not everything has been digitized—at least not yet).

But these days happiness is an in-depth Internet search. Here's an example: Where in the past I could only scour through, say, several dozen newspapers at a time in hardcopy or microfilm, I can now—thanks to search engines and research websites—peruse thousands of newspapers in one sitting. And do it in a fraction of the time. And then look at digitized PDFs. All in the comfort of my own office. How cool is that?

When I write about history, I get nostalgic. When I get nostalgic, I start thinking about how things have progressed over time. I'm old enough to remember the pre-Internet days when you had an archive, a phone and a library as your research tools. Nowadays there's a multitude of research tools available, many of them just a click away. I'd like to think that the ability to look at so much more research in a much shorter amount of time means that the resulting work is richer, deeper, and includes material that otherwise might have been overlooked.

It's how I feel about the book I'm working on. And for that I'm very, very grateful.

"City On Fire" feature film by Jody Wheeler

Jody Wheeler's screenplay for "City On Fire" (a.k.a. "Heat Wave") is now a feature film starring Jamie Luner, Greg Evigan and Barbara Niven.

Set for DVD release (and a premiere on the Sci Fi Channel) later this year, the film is one of Regent Entertainment's offerings at NATPE (National Association of Television Program Executives) in Las Vegas next week. Here's the synopsis of the film:

When a sudden, unexplained rise in local temperatures threatens to turn the whole of Los Angeles into a lifeless desert, one scientist believes she knows why it is happening. But, in order to prove her theory, she must expose the greed of a giant corporation out to make money. It's now a race against time to stop a catastrophe from happening.

Jody and I have been friends for a long time — we go all the way back to high school in Virginia. He was a furiously prolific writer even back then. Always great to see what his next project is. Congrats, Jody!