Taking Chance, the new HBO film which premiered on February 21 with frequent replay on the HBO Network, is much more than a clever title. It is neither a war film nor an anti-war film, but a work dealing with a most sensitive role of the U. S. military during armed strife – the treatment of the remains of fallen soldiers. In this case “Chance” refers to Pvt. 1st Class Chance Phelps, a young U. S. Marine killed in Iraq in 2004.

He comes to the attention of Marine Lt. Col. Michael Stobl, an officer on desk assignment at Quantico, Virginia played by Kevin Bacon. Stobl then decides to volunteer for the first time as a military escort to Phelps’ remains. What started as Stobl’s report of the week-long escort duty and funeral attendance created a buzz on military websites and resulted in the film project. For an in-depth look at the film from Stobl’s and Bacon’s perspectives, see HBO Films’ Taking Chance – Kevin Bacon, Michael Stobl Interview on Armchair General.com.

The focus of Bacon’s character is on the role of the escort, a tradition that began as a result of the formation of the Bring Home the Dead League after World War I. Thousands of war dead were returned from burials in France and escorts accompanied them home. A veteran officer of the conflict, Paxton Hibben, wrote in The New York Times in 1920, “No appropriate expense, however, is spared that is fitting the last journey of a man who has died for his country.”

The escort tradition was in flux until the end of the Korean Conflict and was handled separately by the different service branches. Then, as in the case documented in the film, remains began to be sent to Dover Air Force Base, Delaware, to what is now the Charles Carson Center for Mortuary Affairs. Here all the details of preparing the body for its final resting place are performed, as well as briefing of the escorts. The mortuary is the focal point of military funeral preparations in the United States and has also performed services for other high-profile situations including handling remains of Jonestown victims, Challenger and Columbia astronauts, and 911 victims.

The procedure has also changed since Chance Phelps’ journey home. A new Federal law eliminates commercial airline transport of the remains unless requested by the family. Honor guards, not baggage handlers, remove the bodies from military or military chartered aircraft away from other airport operations. But the escorts remain, and play an important role in honoring the memory of the fallen. The film succeeds in telling this little-known story in a touching and dramatic form, and brings the true cost of war home to everyone in a way rarely seen.

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