Kevin Mincio’s home town rolls out the red carpet for Team Jesse with two screenings of our documentary on Memorial Day, Monday May 27. Show times are 2PM and 5PM at Plaza Cinema in Patchogue, NY. Kevin will conduct Q&A after each screening and DVDs will be available with a donation to The Team Jesse Foundation.
For more information and to purchase tickets visit the Plaza Cinema website.
Kevin Mincio’s home town rolls out the red carpet for Team Jesse with two screenings of our documentary on Memorial Day, Monday May 27. Show times are 2PM and 5PM at Plaza Cinema in Patchogue, NY. For more information and to purchase tickets visit the Plaza Cinema website.
‘The Long Ride Home’ made its Florida premiere at the 8th annual Gasparilla International Film Festival last week in Tampa with two screenings. I proudly represented the film and the foundation, spreading the message to more people across the country. The unique and historic Ybor City of Tampa provided a wonderful setting, making a comeback in recent years as a center for the city’s cultural and artistic celebration. Filmmakers and talent, including myself, strolled in style across the red carpet as camera bulbs flashed. A few celebrity sightings provided the nuance of the traditional Hollywood glamour. It is the first time the film was seen in the South and its impact on audiences was again profound.
However, for me the most memorable moment was meeting the parents of a young soldier honored in the final minutes of the film. In spirit with the mission of Team Jesse to keep memories of the fallen alive, I will tell his story.
Army 1st Lieutenant Dimitri del Castillo was killed June 25, 2011, a day that infamously remains the most difficult of ‘The Ride’. The high heat of the Utah desert challenged Kevin and Matt on their bikes, pushing them to the limit. It is a sequence featured in the film. Simultaneously the same day, the young 24-year old Dimitri, a 2009 West Point graduate was killed in combat in the high mountains of Afghanistan. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 35th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division at the Schofield Barracks, Hawaii. In my meeting with Dimitri’s parents Carlos and Catherine I discovered some striking coincidences; Dimitri’s birthday is the same day as Jesse Williams’- June 9. They were also both rugby players and Dimitri was the captain of the team at West Point. Dimitri was an excellent athlete and an even greater soldier, earning his Airborne wings and completing Ranger School. He was committed to the Army, his comrades and family as much as Jesse was. He met his wife, Katie Pulliam, a fellow cadet at West Point. They were married before they deployed to Afghanistan. Her story, in her own words of their love and life together can be read here. Dimitri was buried later that summer at West Point, a location Kevin and Matt visited just prior to ending ‘The Ride’ on September 11, 2011.
Whether this meeting was by fate, faith, or coincidence there is an overall benevolent serendipity that this was the right place to be. It made me think the message of ‘The Long Ride Home’ is for everyone, those fallen and those left behind to find their way home. The way home is always the most difficult, but the journey is something all people make in one way or another. It is a place where we know we are loved and where the future looks bright and ‘every little thing is gonna be alright’. I will not forget Dimitri’s story.
Much of the magic of filmmaking is what occurs off screen in the hearts of the audience. I take immense satisfaction in knowing that making this film so profoundly touches a family who shares the same sentiments and emotions captured on the screen. As a filmmaker, it is the vindication of the labor and emotion put into the production, knowing that in the chronicling of this story, you have done a good deed. It also bears a stark reminder of reality, when later that day on the local news I saw that another young Tampa Bay local, Spc. Zachary Shannon, 21 of Dunedin, FL died of wounds sustained from a helicopter crash in Afghanistan. For his story please visit here. As the wars continue we must be aware of the daily sacrifices of soldiers and the families left at home.
I would like to thank the Honorable Suzanne Sexton for her support, GIFF directors Joe and Megan Restaino for hosting me and allowing us to screen the film at the festival. Also thanks to all those staff, volunteers, sponsors and donors at the festival for their contributions for creating a great event.
Brett Bowker
The home of MacDill Air Force Base rolls out the red carpet for Team Jesse with two screenings of our documentary on March 21 and March 23. Show time is 4:15PM on the 21st at Cinebistro at Hyde Park and 4:30PM on the 23rd at Muvico Centro Ibor.
For more information and to purchase tickets visit the GIFF website
As 2013 begins, Team Jesse Lacrosse heads to Southern Florida to participate in the Bump & Grind Tournament for their third consecutive time and this year they will be playing in honor of Major Thomas Kennedy.
“Everything TK did he put his all into and took damn good care of his family and soldiers”, wrote one of Team Jesse Lacrosse’s newest members as he nominated Major Kennedy for recognition. “He left behind a wife, a large close knit Irish family, an entire West Point post that mourned his loss for weeks and 1 year old twins. I cannot think of any other warfighter that I would want to honor more than Major K. He was a mentor and friend to everyone that met him, and is truly missed by all” he concluded.
Kennedy graduated from West Point in 2000 and served two tours of duty in Iraq prior to the tour in Afghanistan that began in July of 2012. Major TK was killed by a suicide bomb attack on Army leaders while on a key leader engagement on August 8th, 2012 in Kunar Province in Afghanistan. Kennedy was assigned to Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, Ft. Carson, Colorado.
As Team Jesse takes the field in 2013, Major TK will be an inspiration for us all…both on and off the field.
CHARACTER.
In the 2011/12 school year, over 14,000 young men and women were inspired to carry on the legacies of more than 35 Fallen Heroes through completing the “If Not Me, Then Who…” Service Challenge. Scholarships were awarded to students who stood out as emerging leaders. The top three recipients were recognized at the Gala. Together they volunteered over 250 hours in honor of three Fallen Heroes.
LEADERSHIP.
Brian Stann (center), Hire Heroes USA, receives the “If Not Me, Then Who…” Award. He is pictured with Tom Manion (left), Director, Travis Manion Foundation and General James F. Amos, 35th Commandant of the United States Marine Corps. Brian’s inspirational message to the Gala attendees was simple, yet poignant: 1) create opportunities, 2) don’t be afraid to fail and 3) act not talk.
Movie goers give rave reviews of The Long Ride Home at the Arizona premiere.
By PAUL PAYNE
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
Kevin Mincio hugs Herb Williams, father of fallen soldier Jesse Williams, as Sonya Williams, Jesse’s widow, watches following a screening of The Long Ride Home during the Santa Rosa International Film Festival on Sunday, September 16, 2012.
Kevin Mincio spent 95 days bicycling across America in honor of his Army buddy, Staff Sgt. Jesse Williams of Santa Rosa, who was killed in 2007 in the war in Iraq.
It took Mincio less than five minutes Sunday to rumble across Williams’ hometown on the back of a Harley-Davidson to watch the California premiere of the documentary film about the two men.
“Obviously, this is a very special place,” said Mincio, 41, of Mercer Island, Wash., after taking the short trip from the Veterans Memorial Monument at City Hall to the Glaser Center. “It’s Jesse’s home and where the ride started.”
Mincio was among the two dozen people, including Williams’ widow and father, who attended an afternoon showing of “The Long Ride Home,” which chronicles his wartime friendship and his cross-country trek from Santa Rosa to Ground Zero in New York City.
Viewers laughed and cried in the darkened theater as Williams’ friends recounted the cut-up they knew as “Soupbone” and listened to the chilling video recording he made in the event of his death.
Staring into the camera, Williams urges whoever is listening to help care for his then-infant daughter, Amaya, and to make sure she remembers him.
“I love you very much,” Williams said on the video. “I’m sorry that I’m dead. Goodbye.”
They were tough words to hear for Williams’ father, Santa Rosa political consultant Herb Williams, who sat in front of the big screen with his daughter-in-law, Sonya.
“I have difficulty listening to my son talking,” said the father, maintaining his composure. “I still miss him.”
Mincio, a former Wall Street banker who joined the Army after witnessing the Sept. 11 attacks, met Williams in 2002 during basic infantry training.
They were shipped to Iraq, where they fought beside each other and dodged roadside bombs, losing friends along the way.
They made it home safely, but Williams was killed by a sniper when he returned to Iraq the following year.
Williams wasn’t the only casualty in the group. Another friend, Steve Camposan, suffered post-traumatic stress disorder that he didn’t know he had until he was walking across a Montana college campus months later.
He talked about it in a nine-minute segment that will become part of a separate plea to officials to help veterans, said the film’s director, Tom Wright.
Mincio said the bike ride is a tribute to his friend but also is part of a greater effort to help families of fallen soldiers nationwide.
He created the nonprofit Team Jesse Foundation and set out on the 4,400-mile cycling trip to coincide with the 10th anniversary of 9/11.
He kept to a grueling schedule, enduring desert heat and mountainous terrain. He arrived at Ground Zero and stood at the spot where he saw the World Trade Center Towers crumble in 2001.
He’s since raised funds to provide support and education to 15 families, and will add another 30 families next year, he said.
“It wasn’t so much the ride itself but the significance of it,” Mincio said.
You can reach Staff Writer Paul Payne at 568-5312 or paul.payne@pressdemocrat.com.
The documentary film opens with Army Staff Sgt. Jesse Williams of Santa Rosa looking directly into the camera.
“If you are watching this, I’m dead,” Williams says. “That sucks.”
His father, Herb Williams, a Santa Rosa political consultant who has seen the 100-minute documentary, titled “The Long Ride Home,” said it still packs an emotional punch.
“It gets me right now,” Williams said with a momentary catch in his voice. “I miss him.”
A local audience will see the film in its California premiere during Vets Fest, a Santa Rosa International Film Festival event Sunday at the Glaser Center.
Herb Williams and Sonya Williams, Jesse’s widow, will attend the screenings at 1:30 p.m. and 7:15 p.m., along with director/producer Tom Wright and the two men whose cross-country ride is chronicled in the film, Kevin Mincio and Matt Sauri.
The screenings will be preceded by a motorcycle parade at noon from the Veterans Memorial Monument at City Hall to the Glaser Center, 547 Mendocino Ave., featuring members of the Patriot Guard Riders and American Legion motorcycle units.
Vets Fest will include an art show, panel discussions and information tables staffed by Sonoma County veterans groups at the Glaser Center.
Mincio and Williams joined the Army in 2001: Mincio leaving a lucrative Wall Street banker’s job and Williams, an Eagle Scout and star rugby player, following his father into the service.
The two met at Fort Lewis, Washington and deployed to Iraq together in 2003-04. In 2006, before departing on his second Iraq tour, Williams asked Mincio to take care of his daughter, Amaya, should anything happen to him.
Williams, 25, a Bronze Medal recipient, was killed by a sniper’s bullet on April 8, 2007.
As part of Mincio’s pledge, he and Sauri departed from Williams’ gravesite at Santa Rosa Memorial Park on June 9, 2011 on a 4,200-mile and 95-day trip, arriving at Ground Zero in New York City on the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks.
The documentary includes another Iraq veteran from Williams’ squad describing his experience with post traumatic stress disorder, an account that hushed an audience at the Seattle International Film Festival, where “The Long Ride Home” premiered on Memorial Day.
“It got me,” Herb Williams said. “It’s real life stuff.”
Sonya Williams is flying from her new home at Fort Benning, Ga. for the event.
Admission to Vets Fest is $10 and tickets may be purchased at the Film Festival website: www.sriff.org.
There are 150 free tickets for veterans available for each screening by calling Herb Williams at 527-0190.
(You can reach Staff Writer Guy Kovner at 521-5457 or guy.kovner@pressdemocrat.com.)
HONOR. Most of all.
Our nation’s heroes were honored today at the Travis Manion Foundation 9/11 Heroes Run. As a partnering organization, Team Jesse brought the race to Seattle for the first time this year, joining those in nearly 50 cities around the world. Special thanks to our Mercer Island police, fire fighters and VFW post 5760 members who supported today’s event.
RUN.
The Seattle 9/11 Heroes Run participants lived up to Travis Manion’s legacy of honoring the fallen by challenging the living. Over 200 men, women, children and dogs of all ages finished the 5K and Fun Run courses through scenic Luther Burbank park on Mercer Island. Special thanks to the lacrosse community members who blazed the trail today.
VOLUNTEER.
The spirit of giving was alive in over 40 volunteers without whom today’s event would not have been possible. Our mission to honor and support the families of those who gave their tomorrow for our today was top of mind at the early morning rally to get set up and ready for race day…and the energy was maintained throughout the day! Volunteers welcomed runners at registration, guided them through the course and cheered them to the finish line.
DONATE & CHEER.
Team Jesse and Travis Manion Foundation exceeded our fundraising goal of $10,000 thanks to the generous support of the Seattle community. Special acknowledgement goes to our local race title sponsor, Wimmer Solutions. They supported the event not only financially but by running, volunteering and cheering!
Today the 5K was for the 9K who have given their lives for the freedom that we enjoy in this great nation. Never Forget.
