Film to Feature True Story of Dog Who Helped Iraq Vet

The October 18th Daily Variety article “Waterman nabs ‘Until Tuesday’” by Dave McNary reported that Waterman Entertainment has bought the film rights to a New York times bestseller written by former Army Capt. Luis Carlos Moltalvan.

Story centers on Montalvan, who logged two tours of duty in Iraq. He was dealing with the pressures of his physical wounds, traumatic brain injury and crippling post-traumatic stress disorder until meeting Tuesday, a golden retriever trained to assist the disabled. Tuesday had lived among prisoners and at a home for troubled boys but found it difficult to trust in or connect with a human being until meeting Montalvan.

Production on the film is scheduled to start next summer. And the article also quoted Tucker Waterman, exec VP of Waterman Entertainment:

"Service dogs have played a crucial role in the rehabilitation of many American soldiers, and this film will pay tribute to them as well as the soldiers who have sacrificed so much for our country."

If you want to know about a produced film featuring dogs and Marines in World War II, read about the documentary “War Dogs of the Pacific.”

And while you are on the site, check out the information about PTSD. What you learn may help someone you love.
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Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of the novel MRS. LIEUTENANT and the co-author of the eBook technothriller LT. COMMANDER MOLLIE SANDERS. Phyllis is the co-founder of the marketing consulting company Miller Mosaic LLC, which works with clients to attract more business. Read her posts at the company's social media marketing blog.

A True Story of the Humorous Side of the Army Circa 1970-1972

Those of you who have read my novel MRS. LIEUTENANT know that the American army in the spring and summer of 1970 was a serious place. The Vietnam War pervaded the nine weeks my husband and I spent at Ft. Knox, Kentucky.

When I wrote MRS. LIEUTENANT I fictionalized our experiences to more dramatically portray the seriousness.

Yet there was a humorous side to the army, which we discovered upon our arrival in Munich, Germany, in September 1970 during the drunkenness of the annual Oktoberfest. Yes, Oktoberfest starts in September in Munich.)

Here then is a true story of that humorous side, or at least the truth as I can recall it after so many years.

Read now “A True Army Story: Whistle While You (Try to) Work”
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Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of the novel MRS. LIEUTENANT and the co-author of the eBook technothriller LT. COMMANDER MOLLIE SANDERS. Phyllis is the co-founder of the marketing consulting company Miller Mosaic LLC, which works with clients to attract more business. Read her posts at the company's social media marketing blog.

Is the Army Mandatory Retirement Age the Best Option for Our Military Situation Today?

The October 15-16 Wall Street Journal article by Michael M. Phillips titled “The Old Soldier Who Didn’t Fade Away: A 59-year-old sergeant in Afghanistan is determined to serve any way he can. His real fear? Retirement” is a fascinating story about current Staff Sergeant Don Nicholas.

Nicholas enlisted in the Marines in 1971 (after dropping out of high school) and eventually ended up on the second-to-last helicopter off the roof of the U.S. embassy in Saigon that fateful day of April 30, 1975.

Without going into the details of the following years when he was sometimes on active duty and sometimes not, I’m going to skip ahead to his joining the Army Reserve’s psychological branch in 2004 because “there he had a good chance of going to war.”

He first went to Afghanistan in 2005. Next tour he spent 11 months in Baghdad. This March he arrived in Kunar Province, along the Pakistan border, to serve for a year.

Now here is the part of the article that really got my attention:

On missions, the sergeant is particularly adept at chatting up the locals. In a culture in which age implies wisdom, he has an edge over a fresh-faced lieutenant. As a psy-ops soldier, he tries to persuade the Afghan elders that their interests lie with the Kabul government and the coalition forces, not the Taliban.

And this is good – this is the Army optimizing its resources to fit the mission to the most qualified personnel.

Can you understand why I was then upset when I got to this following paragraph?:

Next July, Sgt. Nicholas turns 60, and the Army will tell him that he can’t go to war anymore, one of the few things he finds truly frightening. He’s trying to get a quick commission as an officer; that would allow him to join the medical corps, which has a higher retirement age.

Now I ask: Why would the Army be willing to lose such a valuable asset – one who wants to remain in the field and use his psy-ops experience?

If the medical corps can extend its retirement age, shouldn’t the Army have the ability to extend that age for special cases – special cases of men or women whose experience and wisdom could be very valuable?

What do you think about the mandatory retirement of a soldier whose specialty is particularly valuable in Afghanistan?
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Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of the novel MRS. LIEUTENANT and the eBook novel LT. COMMANDER MOLLIE SANDERS. Phyllis is the co-founder of the marketing consulting company Miller Mosaic LLC, which works with clients to attract more business. Read her posts at the company's social media marketing blog.

From the Author: MRS. LIEUTENANT

While updating information about my novel MRS. LIEUTENANT via my Amazon author page, I had the opportunity to write a "From the Author" introduction. After adding this introduction on Amazon I'm also sharing it here:

The novel MRS. LIEUTENANT took 38 years to be published.

The novel’s saga started when I was a new Mrs. Lieutenant in May 1970 during the Vietnam War and right after the Kent State shootings. The experience introduced me to the world of army wives that I would never have otherwise known.

About 20 years later and after I had started the Los Angeles Chapter of the national organization Sisters in Crime, I told the story of my military spouse experience to two female movie producers. They were intrigued and optioned the story for a movie.

They eventually told me that Hollywood people did not “get” the movie concept and that I would have to first write a book. By the time I wrote the first draft of the novel the producers had moved on.

For another 20 years or so I wrote and rewrote the novel. (It had to be a novel rather than a nonfiction book to protect the people whose stories I wanted to tell.) I created fictional characters and some fictional events for a more compelling story.

Many agents and publishers over the years turned the novel down. But I felt strongly that there was a place for a novel about this slice of women’s social history at the beginning of the women’s movement in the United States.

When POD (print on demand) self-publishing became an option, I decided to self-publish MRS. LIEUTENANT. At the same time I entered it in the 2008 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award competition. When the book was named a semifinalist of this competition, I felt vindicated for my 38-year belief in sharing this story.

At the same time I stumbled into blogging and social media for book marketing. From that point on I dove into learning as much as possible about this brave new online world, and I co-founded an online marketing company with my younger daughter Yael K. Miller.

Now ebooks have opened up the self-publishing world even more – and I’m engaged in resurrecting some of my favorite unpublished stories to give them a life on the Internet.

You can see my current available books and ebooks at http://budurl.com/PZMbooks
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Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of the novel MRS. LIEUTENANT and the eBook technothriller LT. COMMANDER MOLLIE SANDERS. Phyllis is the co-founder of the marketing consulting company Miller Mosaic LLC, which works with clients to attract more business. Read her posts at the company's social media marketing blog.