After the interview, Justin and the crew came over to the house, shot some B-roll (production talk for shoot some video of these folks so we can cover up the edits), had us drive around the block with a camera on the dash and just basically tried to get some shots of us looking normal. God help me. I was trying to convince all who would listen that their cameras seemed to add about 50 lbs to my real girth. That lasted about 90 minutes and the “circus left town” just as quickly as it had arrived.
Tuesday evening the phone rang and it was Justin asking us if he could talk to the other two vets that we hired after Charles. It was never a plan of ours to hire several veterans but once we saw what kind of person Charles was, we made it a point to take a much harder look at veterans and almost by fate, two appeared within weeks of each other. We subsequently hired Mike Morales and Jon Kendall and have found in them the same qualities that we saw in Charles. The next day, a cameraman was sent from New York and she shot Charles and the two boys and Justin now had all the pieces he needed for our piece on Dateline, Sunday, the 25th of March.
On Saturday, Justin published the lead into the story and it was getting close to a reality. From the call from Charles to National TV, it was little more than 10 days. In Justin we found someone who really cared about his work and unquestionably cared about Charles. From Kuwait, to Iraq, to Fort Benning, to Sparta to Crystal Lake, these two have come to respect and care for each other. It was heartwarming to see for Sue and I.