A few years ago, I entered the commercial tactical industry and cringed. False flag bravado, toxic machismo, and fear based marketing dominated the industry’s narratives. Companies hired former soldiers, put words in their mouths and products in their hands — then leveraged their “special” credentials to sell gear, most of it providing zero performance value.
The virtues of a fictitious commercialized warrior completely betray the realities of what it means to serve. You cannot brand and sell the willingness to join the military after 9/11. You cannot market the motivation to sacrifice everything for your brothers and sisters in combat. Worse, in attempting to do so, companies further the gap between honoring service members because they select which parts of their personalities they want to deal with.
The BCM American Gunfighter
It hurts to come home from war. Although soldiers are excited to see family members, the emotional toll of combat lingers; for some, their entire lives.
As a personality within the commercial tactical industry, I wanted this reality to strike at the core of my biopic with Bravo Company USA. The BCM American Gunfighter series is genre defining because the microphone is given to veterans to talk, not promote products. And in doing so, the real narratives about warrior culture emerge.
