Only the Brave: Movie Commentary

During my career, I had a fair share of exposure to the natural phenomena called wildfires. Though most probably think of New Mexico as a desert state, the truth is it contains millions of acres of forests and at least three major wilderness areas--the Gila (the largest at 3.3 million acres), the Pecos, and the Jemez, and five major designated National Forests. In fact, the original Smokey Bear - the little rescued bear cub with the burned paws who became the national icon for preventing forest fires - hailed from the forests near Lincoln, New Mexico.

In my tenure as a military budget director, I managed the budget for State Active Duty--which was a special fund for the deployment of the National Guard troops and equipment to assist with manmade or natural disasters within our state. I saw a lot of wildfires on my watch, including the Cerro Grande, which in the year 2000 destroyed 48,000 acres, a good portion of the town of Los Alamos and very nearly took out one of our national labs--LANL or Los Alamos National Laboratory. This fire was so massive, it could be clearly seen from space. It started on May 4th with a controlled burn that quickly got out of hand and wasn't completely extinguished until July 20th of that year.

I remember our Regional Training Center being converted into a makeshift dining hall for hundreds of firefighters and emergency personnel sent to assist with the fire and fire security. I also remember watching from the patio area outside our headquarters building when the Cerro Grande fire spiked a ridge not that far to the west of us, and wondered if we would be next to evacuate.

Naturally, when I heard that a group of Hotshots--the elitist of the elite wild land firefighters--had been overtaken on a ridge in Arizona on June 30, 2013, and all 19 succumbed, I was shocked and deeply saddened. I knew it had to have been a horrific fire to get the better of such highly trained personnel.

Little did I know that a remarkable movie would be made of this incident, and much of it would be filmed very near my old office in Santa Fe and near some of the areas where the Cerro Grande fire burned more than a decade before. This powerful tale was captured in the recently released motion picture, Only the Brave. Here's the trailer...

I won't go into the details of the plot, because I want to leave that for readers to discover themselves, but I will tell you the film packed a punch, as have a few of the images I've since seen and the additional facts I've since learned as a result. The title came from the first words of a quotation by the Greek historian Dionysius of Halicarnassus: "Only the brave enjoy noble and glorious deaths..."

A quick background on Hotshot crews. At the time of the Yarnell Hill Fire, there were roughly 107 of these specially trained crews, each consisting of 20 members, throughout the US. These men and women are certified, highly trained and must meet stringent physical requirements. You can think of them as the Special Forces of wildland firefighters. They are on call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and can be sent to any area needing assistance, usually to fight major or high priority fires, where they sometimes camp for weeks in the fire area. Unlike many other firefighting outfits, the Hotshots work on the front line fighting fire with fire, igniting burn lines to arrest the spreading wildfire in order to protect people, property, towns, forests and landmarks.

The Granite Mountain Hotshots were unique, in that they were the only crew formed from a city municipality (Town of Prescott Arizona Fire Department or PFD). It took six years to attain their certification, beginning with the establishment of a fuels mitigation crew in 2002, which later transitioned to a Type 2 handcrew in 2004, to them finally receiving their evaluation and Hotshots Type 1 certification in 2008, five years before the Yarnell Hill Fire.



Images property of Columbia Pictures

In casting, there was a lot of effort made to find actors who fit not only the physical characteristics of the real life person they were portraying, but the actors then took it to the next level in trying to capture the spirit of the person. Miles Teller (Divergent) plays Brendon "Donut" McDonough, and spent several days with Brendon to get a sense of his mannerisms and habits. The same went for Jeff Bridges and his portrayal of Fire Chief Duane Steinbrink. Josh Brolin worked hard to accurately represent the hard-driving perfectionist, Superintendent Eric Marsh. His widow, Amanda Marsh, showed actress Jennifer Connelly several methods she used in handling rescued horses--and yes she was, and is, a real life horse rescuer, and yes, those methods are shown in the movie.

Maybe one of the most stunning revelations for me was that actor Brandon Bunch played the role of his real life best friend, Garret Zuppiger. The actor had formerly been with the Granite Mountain Hotshot crew for four years and knew every member of the team that was killed that day. In fact, he might have been there himself, if he hadn't left the Hotshots two weeks earlier to tend to his pregnant wife. The tragic call about his friends came on his oldest son's birthday. He turned down the offer for the role more than once before deciding to do the film. Of the private screening, he said: "The whole thing was kind of hard to watch."

One of the most iconic scenes, which in real life took place on June 19, only days before the team met its fate, was the saving of the Grandfather Juniper. This ancient Alligator Juniper, a tree so ancient that "it might have been a seedling when Jesus walked the planet" is one of the state's natural treasures. It grew near the Granite Mountain Hotshots' hometown of Prescott, Arizona, and it resulted in one of the most famous photos of the group ever taken after the crew saved the tree during the Doce Fire. (There's a version of the photo compared to the scene in the movie at the History vs. Hollywood link below.) Prescott College Professor Doug Hulmes said of the Grandfather Juniper, "May the tree continue to stand as a recorder of Nature's memory and a living memorial to those who cared."

Images property of Columbia Pictures

There are a few events in the film that were altered, such as Hollywood merging the characters of the Fire Chief and Deputy Fire Chief into one, and a few things that weren't covered, such as the lawsuit later brought by some of the survivors' families against the Arizona State Department of Forestry. Clearly, this heroic team was lost due to a fatal combination of unpredictable fire and weather conditions, uncharacteristic decisions and inexplicable actions.

The Yarnell Hill Fire resulted in the greatest loss of firefighters in a single event since September 11, 2001.

If you didn't catch this movie in theaters last fall, I highly recommend it. This story needed to be told, and I'm in awe at how well Hollywood pulled it off. (And that's certainly not something I'm known to say often.)

It's possible this production hit so close to home for me because of my background and the history of wildfires in our state, but I believe it would appeal to almost everyone. Many know of the heroism of firefighters in an urban setting, but few understand what it takes to meet Mother Nature head-on in her own territory.

Only the Brave is a definite GO!

Read More:
History vs. Hollywood: Only the Brave 2017
Hiking Where the Granite Mountain Hotshots Fell
Hotshot Tree Earns Magnificent 7 Honors
Former Granite Mountain Hotshot Plays Best Friend...
Line of Fire: What Happened at Yarnell Hill?
A Year After the Yarnell Hill Wildfire
Four Year Later: New Memorial to 19 Firefighters (Video)
Granite Mountain Hotshots Facebook Page

The Official Granite Mountain Hotshots Charity: Prescott FF Charities

And a few final thoughts on the Granite Mountain Hotshots and their legacy...

 

 

Movie theme song and lyrics "Hold the Light" by Dierks Bentley

As New Mexico is facing what may become the worst fire season in our history -- following one of the driest, warmest winters on record -- this film brought into very sharp focus what may be in store for our state.

Thank the Lord for the Hotshots and others like them--those who are brave and bold enough to battle these devastating wildfires. They are true heroes.

Have a great week.

So What Exactly is The Cloud?

Happy Monday.

While doing some research for a future novel, I realized I was a bit fuzzy on this whole "Cloud" thing. What exactly is The Cloud. And what does it do?

My understanding was about this sophisticated:

The Cloud is someplace over the rainbow where I store a bunch of manuscripts and photos and music and files and stuff, and I think of it as this nebulous place high above the ground but below the exosphere where all this information just sort of hangs in the atmosphere like a, you know, cloud.

Okay, you more tech-minded readers probably find this quite amusing. True, I do write somewhat techy SFR but that doesn't mean I understand all these intricate electronic data storage concepts. But I needed to get a basic understanding of how it works for elements of a story, so I thought there may be a few readers out there that have the same question mark in their minds and might like a basic overview.

So....blog fodder!

Why is it called The Cloud?

The answer is pretty silly. They call it "the cloud" because in the past a picture of a cloud was used to represent the telephone network, and later as an abstract representation of the internet and its underlying infrastructure. Which naturally extended to internet data storage. (And maybe just to confuse writers so they need to research it. I'm convinced.)

What is it and How Does it Work?

Because I'm a kind of show-don't-tell kind of learner, I first found this:
(Actually, I found several Cloud Computing 101 videos, but this one was the most entertaining and has a narrator least likely to put you to sleep.)




Okay, that helps. Now I know "the cloud" isn't something up in the sky, it's a bunch of mega-huge facilities with mega-ginormous servers all over the planet that can store your data and make your data accessible to you...anywhere.

So, for instance, if your house gets hit by a falling satellite and it obliterates everything including your computer. Ack! My files! No, it's not a problem if you have your crucial data stored in the cloud (like those fifteen manuscripts you've been investing insane amounts of time on, and cover images, and related research, blurbs, blogs and memes). You can access those files from your temporary hotel room. And if your temporary hotel burns down, you can access it from your Aunt Shelby's house. And if your Aunt Shelby kicks you out....well, you still have access from wherever you go next while you're waiting for your house to be rebuilt.

Googledocs and Dropbox make use of Cloud storage. I use Dropbox extensively, so I was already using the Cloud without really understanding what that meant.

iCloud is also a popular cloud storage method and provides storage of data, music, other multimedia and documents online, seamlessly integrated onto your devices or apps.

But that's a very basic explanation. I get into it in just a little more detail below, but--fair warning--this may be the point where your eyes start glazing over. Sorry! This stuff is dry. There's no way around it.

Types of Cloud Computing

Just for purposes of expanding on the overall definition, there are three types of cloud computing. In order of service, they are:

SaaS (sass) is Software as a Service
This is the on demand, pay per use sort. So, yes, it's what I use. Cloud Basic. No need to install special software on your PC and it's available via a web browser, such as Gmail, Googledocs, Googledrive, Help Desk Solutions, etc. SaaS cloud computing is accessable from any platform, allows you to work from anywhere, is excellent for collaboration, and the vendor provides some of the software tools. So writer-types use SaaS a lot. However, there can be some problems caused by internet performance, browser issues and the like.

PaaS (pass) Platforms as a Service
This is made up of a programming language execution environment, an operating system, a web server, and a database. It's basically a cloud computing service where users don't need to worry about underlying infrastructure. Some examples are Windows Azure, heroku, and Force.com. No, I've never heard of those either, but that may be because PaaS is used mainly by developers. I'm not a developer, so this falls under NtK (Nice to Know).

IaaS (ee-yas) Infrastructures as a Service
This service offers computing architecture and infrastructure and all computing resources in a virtual environment where multiple users can access them. It includes data storage, virtualization, servers and networking. In most cases, the vendors are responsible for managing the resources. It's used mainly by systems administrators, via Amazon EC2, GoGrid or Rackspace.com. Yeah, also over my head. I'm not a SysAdmin, and most of them talk in a language I can barely understand, so this is also a NtK.

For many of us, all this probably adds up to a big fat "Huh?"

I found this brief video that attempts to explain the facets of Cloud Computing in Plain English. Well, sort of. And with lots of metaphors and symbolism, but it may make more sense than anything I tried to translate (badly) above.





How Scientists Might Use the Cloud

For my story, it would be helpful to know how a scientist might use the Cloud. Since it's going to take months to sort through all the info I found for the specifics I need, I just picked up a few interesting tidbits from my afternoon research session.

• The Cloud is especially useful for scientists who need access to huge data storage capabilities, because it's cheaper (five to seven times less expensive!) to utilize warehouse-size data centers that might have 50,000 or more servers, than a smaller facility with only 1000 or so.
• Some research requires massive amounts of data, such as astronomy, where it would take literally months via internet to upload the tens of terabytes generated daily, so some centers allow for the shipment of cases of hard drives to be physically added to the cloud storage. (This idea is attributed to the late computer scientist, Jim Gray.)   
• Software packages like MATLAB and Mathematica are now available in versions that can send scientific work to the cloud.
• There's software called MPI (Multi-Passing Interface) that runs in the cloud and connects multiple supercomputers at once for massive calculating needs. It does have some issues where the various computers may not run seamlessly in synch.
• Some scientists don't require supercomputers, but could benefit greatly from parallelism--tens or even hundreds of computers computing at the same time via the cloud, which would reduce the TTA or the essential "time to answer." (I don't know about you, but this brings back that scene from The Martian where Rich Pernell plugged his laptop into the supercomputer--and waited and waited for a calculation confirmation--while hunkering down in his parka.)

Probably a case of Cloud-TMI, wasn't it? :)

Have a great week.

WOW! MARTIAL ARTS AND CATS!

Well, it’s been a rough week all around, dear readers. So, here, courtesy of Reid Carter of AV Club, is a tip about a YouTube show that goes wa-a-a-y beyond your typical cat video. In fact, it combines my two favorite YouTube video addictions—martial arts and cats!

Yes, this is the (in)famous Neko Zamurai  (Samurai Cat), an historical series about a Shogun-era samurai sent to assassinate a rival’s feline, only to find he just can’t do the deed. Weird humor ensues. Enjoy the trailer below. Since I’ll be visiting family out of town next week, I’ll see you in two.

Cheers, Donna

The allure of history in SF

Terracotta warriors at Xian

I'm over 40k words into my new book, and it's all falling into place as science fiction with a large helping of history. It seems to be a pattern with me, maybe because I find history fascinating. I have a BA(Hons) in history and that fascination that got me through university has remained. I'm especially intrigued with stories about civilizations that disappeared. I don't mean Atlantis - because I'm not convinced it actually existed - certainly not as portrayed in Plato's book. But there's reason to believe it may have been loosely based on the volcanic destruction of Santorini.

But there are more actual, real examples. For instance, the city of Troy in the Iliad did and does exist. When it was excavated, it was found to have been built on top of itself nine times. Then there's this amazing Mayan city in the jungle. The extent of this place has only recently been revealed using aerial mapping techniques. The Mayans abandoned their cities in around the 8th or 9th centuries, and nobody is exactly sure why. There are so many mysteries in history - who built the pyramids, and how, and why? Who built Stonehemge? How and why?  There are more prosaic discoveries, people who stumbled upon a treasure trove in their back paddock. Something like Sutton Hoo. And then there are the fabled terracotta warriors guarding the tomb of Qin Shi Huang the first emperor of China. The tomb was constructed before the modern era, but it disappeared from view, and knowledge for close to two thousand years. It was stumbled upon by a farmer in 1974. And just now, as I've written this, there has been another stunning discovery in Egypt, a necropolis that has been untouched for two thousand years.

What about tantalising fragments hinting at technology we have only recently 'discovered'? The Mayans knew a great deal about astronomy and tracked the planets long before Copernicus. Then there's the Antikythera mechanism, which is an analog computer dating back to before the modern era.

So it's hardly surprising that my science fiction stories often have a bit of (made up based on real) ancient history in them. The Mystery of the Ice Warriors is no different. The ice warriors are statues of mythical beings, carved from a crystal rock that has a blue glow. Unfortunately for Romila, who has inherited her parent's antique shop after their death, the statues have been used to smuggle drugs. Romila is in trouble with the drug dealers, but Morgan's Misfits (Jirra, Chet, and Toreni) see an opportunity to help her, and destroy a leading criminal at the same time.

Since I'm very much a make-it-up-as-you-go writer, I'm finding out the most amazing things about these ice warriors and their history. Are they mythological figures. like the Greek and Roman Gods, or were they real? There's a bit of climate change in the book, too. Places that were temperate became too cold for humans. The Viking settlement on Greenland is an Earth example.

Here's a snippet - warts and all, not even remotely edited - but it'll give you an idea what the ice warriors are like.

Lorpat took them to a closed off area to the left. "This is our workshop. Sunil has told you the story of the statues? What they are?"

Chet smiled. "He told us so many things details have slipped past me. Please explain again."

Lorpat frowned and chewed at his lip before he spoke in heavily accented Standard. "They be mythological figures, taken from legends of our past. Ancient warriors. He picked up a statue standing on a shelf. "See? Helmet for fighting, body… how you call it… protection…"

"Armor," Chet provided.

"Yes, armor." He traced the pattern on the chest with his finger. "Each is different. Each carver uses his own pattern."

"Really?" Chet stared at the design. "You can say who carved a piece by looking at the armor?"

He smiled at her, nodding. "Yes. This one is made by Krishnan. You will meet him."

Jirra waved her sanvad. "May I take pictures? So we can remember what you said?"

He shrugged. "If you want."

"Is there anything else different about them?" Chet asked as Jirra recorded. "Are they supposed to be different characters?"

"Yes. All are different. Weapons can be different. This man carries sword." He picked up a second finished statue. "This has no sword but has spear. Helmets can be different." He pointed. "This one has design. This one plain."

"May I?" Jirra's hand stretched toward a statue, waiting until Lorpat nodded before she picked it up, tracing the lines of the helmet. "Almost looks like breathing apparatus."

Lorpat took a moment to process the words.

Jirra put her hand over her mouth and made breathing noises.

The man laughed, shaking his head. "No. Not… what you said. They are warriors, part of the mountains. They fought the evil spirits who live in the ice rivers, banished them to the wild places."

It was a common trope, the forces of good and evil set against each other, the knights of the mountains fighting the demons of the deeps. 

There you have it. I'll keep on writing.