Semper Gus photos: Daddy D.A.

Daddy D.A.

Captian Dale A. Dye, USMC (Ret.)     We had a secret in those fast, hard times, 67-68 in The Nam, didn't we, Gus? Huh? There it was...and there it is, right? We knew there was something inside that had to come out and the war was gonna make it happen for both of us. You, the reluctant, wandering hobo of the war, and me, the Lifer gone astray among the Snuffies, who wanted to taste, feel and smell so he'd never be a boot again. We knew it right off when you mentioned Hemingway over warm beers and I quoted the line about war being man's greatest adventure. We knew we were kindred spirits, perhaps more closely akin than others in our little gaggle of lusthogs, didn't we? --Dale Dye from his tribute to Gus     I don't look at his face. Daddy D.A. is a recruiting poster Marine, with a square chin, steel-gray hair, and a neatly trimmed mustache. But now his face is oily with sweat and contorted. His eyes are wild. He looks like a drunk who's about to cry. But he won't.
    Daddy D.A. is a lifer, a career Marine, but he only just decided to be one, so he's still almost human. And since Donlon rotated back to the World and I lost my last link with reality, Daddy D.A. has been my best friend.
    I'm afraid to die alone, but even more afraid to go home . . .
    "There it is." Daddy D.A. nods. "There it is. Sorry 'bout that." He laughs.
    I say, "Want a cold beer?"
    "That's affirmative on your last," says Daddy D.A., looking up, brightening. "I sure could use one."
    I say, "Well, when you find some slack, D.A., you be sure to souvenir a big piece for me." --from The Phantom Blooper     For the Vietnam War sequences, Dye, himself a Vietnam combat veteran, did more than toughen the actors physically. "I had to reach inside their hearts and tell them what we were like in 1968 when we were 20 years old -- what our attitudes were, what seeing that war and that brutality did to us, what it felt like to go for long periods of having nothing and being exhausted all the time and being covered with jungle sores. I had to do this because anytime you lie on a screen, you've done a disservice to America's fighting men and the 58,000 Americans who fell in Vietnam, and I won't allow that." --from the official RULES of ENGAGEMENT web site

Dye on the set of Saving Private Ryan Photo from the film's official web site

Dye in pre-production for The Last of the Mohicans Photo from MOHICAN MUSINGS INDEX

Dye conducting weapons training on the set of Terminator 2 Photo from Entertainer Network Weblinks