The Final Project: RESTREPO in 3 Words

We've done our best, and all of us in the military community are feeling how much of our heart and soul went into promoting a small war documentary. There's not much more we can do. We've pounded on theater doors, hawked it via Facebook, and Twitter. Told all our friends. We hope that others will see what we do when we look at our warriors: someone to love.

And so here we are, the day before the Oscars.
Aron Hijar and Misha Pemble-Belkin are readying to go to the ceremony. Yesterday, Aron was going to pick up his tux.
How far this all must seem from the Korengal.
How grateful we are to all those who have served.

We have learned so much: war is complicated, as is peace. A conversation about peace is less meaningful unless one can have a reasonable discourse about the circumstances of war. We know that the war machine is in fact very human. In the bigger sense, we who have friends and family are part of the war machine. There's no escaping this fact, no apologizing for it, and no denying that we're a necessary component. All those who experience war, make the machine human. We give it a soul, and hopefully, we make people think a bit deeper in every dimension.

TAKE PART IN THIS PROJECT
Click the above link to see!

I'm inviting people to take part in a little project.
ABC News asked each of the Oscar Nominees to come up with three words about this experience.
Think of three words around the experience of RESTREPO and the thoughts it evokes for you. Write them down on a piece of paper. Then take a photo of yourself with the words and send it to me via Facebook, or post it to my page. Then post it to the RESTREPO Facebook page as well on Sunday night.

Win or lose, RESTREPO will always be something we know we did our best with. Through it, we reaffirmed our love for those who serve, and we also found a new source of family. Family? Love? Respect? Understanding? It's clear that whatever the outcome, what we have gained is huge, and the lasting impact of this film will be forever significant.

I'll be here at the house with the Hijar and Rueda families. I don't have the biggest TV, but there's food and plenty of heart. We'll be on Facebook.
Here are four contributors:
John Coffey, Georgia, US Navy Veteran; Paul Zipes, Florida, US Navy Veteran; Susan Carroll-Gibbons, New York, Blue Star Grandmother, and me here in California.