Bud Returns: Update
It’s hard to believe it’s been a year since we were forced to postpone our trip to Europe with Bud. We are crossing our fingers that things change and we can jump on the first airplanes over to France when things are safe again.
In the meantime, I wanted to share where we are with our project - because we certainly have not stopped working.
We have now contacted over 100 families of the Veterans of Bud’s company. This has been a massive undertaking, and we have enjoyed every moment spent in conversation with the sons, daughters, and grandchildren of the AntiTank Company of the 222 Infantry Regiment.
We’ve discovered other living Veterans of the company (!) and have been able to sit on multiple Zoom calls with families, Bud, and other remaining Veterans. There is no better feeling than facilitating the opportunity for the families of deceased Veterans to speak with living Veterans who remember them, and can tell them stories from the war. It’s a very precious thing!
Most of the families we have contacted have generously shared their Veteran’s wartime photos, letters, and documents with us (we estimate that we have around 3000 at this point!) - so that we can share them with other families. There are families who had never seen wartime photos of their Veteran - only to suddenly receive a dozen via email. Another very precious experience!
We have many wonderful things gaining momentum because of these past months of intense research; many priceless friendships have been made, much healing for so many families, and we’ve been able to spend plenty of time listening to Bud’s amazing memories.
Our knowledge of the company and every move they made has grown, and our deepest gratitude goes to the families for this - it would be impossible to know these men in the way we now know them through military documents. The men have come to life through the warmth and generosity their families have extended to us.
We have no doubt that the pandemic has only strengthened our project. When we take Bud to Europe and make our documentary, we will undoubtedly be fulfilling his biggest request to me from way back at the inception of our documentary:
‘Erin, don’t make this film all about me. I wasn’t a hero. We were all in it together, talk about the other guys, too’.
That we will do, with tremendous joy to shine the light on an absolutely outstanding group of men who we feel incredibly blessed to learn about and share with all of you.