An Iowa man’s putting the finishing touches on a movie made for the Marines. Ed Vinson of Keokuk does photography and video, and after a former colleague got a contract to make a film for the military, he had a part in the production. In 2003, he explains, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld released a memo saying the military had to reduce all preventable off-duty accidents by 50-percent over the next two years. The aim of this film is teach the soldiers “to be more responsible for each other.” If it’s an alcohol-related thing, he says, they’re supposed to take the keys away from a companion and not let them drive intoxicated. The film has five topics in all, he says, most dealing with driving personal vehicles. Fatigue and other factors are part of the 5-stage awareness campaign, though Vinson admits with the number of young adult men in the military, intoxication is a frequent cause of trouble. The film aims to stress shared responsibility and safety awareness, among soldiers in and out of uniform. Vinson’s part in the film is mostly the graphic design and animation, and he also worked as videographer for the filming they did, at the military’s request, at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. He’s finishing production and making final edits, and he says the film’s due to be released to the Marine Corps on July 15. At Camp LeJeune he says they visited the “brig” where offenders are held, soldiers who made the kind of mistakes like driving drunk that this video aims to reduce. Vinson’s a military veteran himself and says his daughter’s in the Marine Corps, stationed in Japan.
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