Normally I try and wait a bit for an event as big as the one I just experienced to percolate before I try to write about it. I’d really like to communicate exactly what it was like to be at the Rose Parade and experience the things I experienced. Alas I go back to work tomorrow and my guess is memories of the 2006-7 Pasadena experience will dull and fade quickly. So I’m going to spend the next few hours typing this bad boy up.
My personal experience began back in September when the DSG (Dune Sea Garrison) gathered in Papago Park to film our marching video. Lucasfilm had asked that all Garrisons and Outposts put together a video showing our marching skills and based on that video they would decide who they needed for the parade. Our garrison is filled with people who have military experience as well as marching band experience. I figured that these folks would most likely get picked but I wanted to go out and toss my name into the hat anyway. We marched around the parking lot for several hours first to Mara Jen’s whistle and then to Kevin’s cadence calling. By the end of the day I was pretty much convinced that although I could learn to march I was by no means the best marcher there. I went home satisfied that I had at least tried but didn’t expect much of any response.
On October 27th, I was knee deep in pink while painting Molly’s room for her. The phone rang and since these days the phone calls are usually for Trudy, she left the room to go answer it. I remember distinctly that I was rolling another batch of pink on the wall when she popped her head in the door and said, with a big grin on her face, “It’s Lucasfilm!” Now, this is a surreal moment in the life of a Star Wars fan. You may fantasize about being called by Lucasfilm for something but you never actually expect it to happen. I took the phone in a daze and said “Hello?” Alexis answered and said that the current e-mail they had on file for me was not working and could she please have an alternate. I gave it to her and she told me to expect and e-mail any minute. Even then I was convinced they were sending me an e-mail saying “Thanks but no thanks”. But instead I got this:
“We are pleased to inform you that you are a finalist to be part of the international 501st marching squadron in the 2007 Tournament of Roses Parade! Final participant selections will be made in the next few weeks.
In order to participate in the marching squad, you will need to commit to traveling to Los Angeles, California, on December 27 for four days of rehearsal, which lead up to the Parade itself on January 1. Lucasfilm Ltd. will pay for the cost of your travel to/from Los Angeles on December 27 and January 2, as well as your lodging, meals and transportation during this time. The parade itself will require you to march 5½ miles in costume (approximately 9 kilometers) without a break; this will take approximately 3 to 3½ hours at parade speed. Before you agree to participate, please carefully consider whether you will be able to meet this requirement.
Additionally, you will need to ensure that you meet all requirements for travel to the United States, which in some instances may require you obtaining a travel visa (if required for travel from your country). We urge you to investigate the visa requirements for traveling from your country. If you are living in a country that needs a visa to travel to the United States of America, please begin the application procedure now. Lucasfilm Ltd. will reimburse you for the cost of your visa application; you will receive instructions for receiving reimbursement at a later date.
Please also be aware that Lucasfilm Ltd. and Prometheus Entertainment will be videotaping a great deal of the 501st activity for a planned documentary. You should expect to be videotaped for this documentary, which will focus on some members more than others. In order to participate in the marching squad, you will need to allow your image and likeness to be used for this production. Some of you may hear directly from Prometheus regarding your participation in the documentary.
If you are able to accept all of the conditions listed above, please respond to this e-mail (our e-mail address is (removed)). We must receive your reply via e-mail NO LATER THAN Tuesday, October 17.
In your response, please be sure to send us your current contact information, including a postal address at which you will be able to receive mail within the next 10 days, as well as the best phone number and e-mail address at which we can reach you. Please also indicate what costume you plan to wear. We would prefer that you wear an all-white stormtrooper costume if you have one, but will also accept the costume you wore in the video.
Once all confirmations have been received, we will notify you of our final selections. If you are one of the 501st members selected to march in the parade, you will receive a packet with detailed travel and participation instructions.
Thank you again for submitting your application. We hope you are as excited as we are about Lucasfilm Ltd.’s participation in the 2007 Tournament of Roses Parade! We look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
The Lucasfilm Ltd. Rose Parade Team”
I have to admit that I did a happy dance when I saw the first few lines of the letter. Trudy was smiling ear to ear and my kids and my wife all gave me huge hugs. Even though the letter said that I was only a finalist I was still pretty excited. I tried to tell myself not to get my hopes up. I tried to keep the information contained as I didn’t want to suffer the embarrassment of telling everyone I knew, not being selected and then turning right around and telling everyone I couldn’t go. Still, it’s very, very hard not to get excited over the possibility of going doing something that cool.
Then the day came when everyone on the legion message boards was announcing that they had received their final packets from LFL with travel instructions etc. Everyone in my garrison who had received the initial finalist letter go their packets…except me. Undaunted I called FedEx and asked them if they had a package for me. The guy on the other end began to confirm that indeed they did and then stopped. “Oh it looks like Lucasfilm printed off a label for you, but they never gave us the package.” I was crushed. I had let my expectations rise and now it was evident that I was not going to go. In a last ditch effort I sent an e-mail to Lucasfilm asking if maybe there had been a mistake and FedEx was never given my packet. They responded almost immediately and told me that I was not selected. I don’t mind saying that I was pretty bummed. I really wanted to go and being the only one in my garrison to receive the finalist letter and not get selected was horrible feeling.
It took me about a week but I let it go. I moved on and tried to focus on the Make-A-Wish event that I had organized for the Garrison. This is what the 501st is about after all. As cool as the Rose Parade would have been, this was to be my end of year focus. The plans for the Make-A-Wish year end party went forward and I was in almost daily contact with them. There was some confusion about the water we requested and Make-A-Wish could only afford water for 10 of us (since the arena was charging them concession prices) but we already had nearly 20 troopers attending.
On December 8th I had exchanged voicemails with Make-A-Wish several times. I was still at work and ran out to get a bite. As I sat in my car wolfing down a sandwich I got a call on my cell. Assuming it was Make-A-Wish I answered and the female voice on the other end asked to speak with Neil Hetzel. I was a bit dumfounded because I was on a first name basis with the girl from Make-A-Wish. I responded that this was indeed Neil Hetzel and the woman on the other end of the phone introduced herself as Alexis from Lucasfilm. She was calling to see if I was still available to march. That moment is stamped in my brain for the rest of my life. Here was something that I wanted to do very badly and I thought the chance had gone. Now the opportunity had presented itself again. I said yes of course I was still available. She said “Great, I’ll send out a packet today.” Immediately after hanging up I jumped out of my car and hooted at the top of my lungs. People in the parking lot thought I was insane.
Day 1
I arrived in LA about 4:00pm. I found my room, and got a bit nervous because the bed was tiny. Lucasfilm had slotted us 4 to a room at the Universal Sheraton Hotel. But I wasn’t complaining…at least not yet. I was lucky to be here right? I wandered around the hotel trying with futility to find Mara Jen and aware that Lance and Kevin were still on the road. There were other troopers milling about (you can tell, even without the armor) but nothing much happening. I wandered down to the ‘Lani’ rooms where Lucasfilm had directed us to register. I did so and received my cool Roseparade swag, a 501st George Lucas/ Rose Parade action figure and a Rose Parade pin. It’s worth mentioning that without my garrison mates around I felt a little out of place. The reason that’s worth mentioning is that after a few hours that completely changed. Oh and I also I got to meet R2-D2.
How kind of her to take a pic with a sweaty geek.
After registering, I met up with Lance, Kevin and Jen and we went to dinner. It was held in one of the Universal Sheraton’s large banquet halls and it was done buffet style. Still, the service was excellent. But enough about the service. We were told to bring our right shoulder bell to the dinner so that we could affix the official Rose Parade patch.
Our Table on the first night.
Armor is all ready to get the patch.
It was just the four of us sitting at our table when we looked up and saw what appeared to be either the reincarnation of Motörhead or a biker gang. The four of them were looking for a place to sit so we offered our empty seats. Thinking we had just invited members of the Texas Shit Kicker Garrison to dinner with us we were shocked and pleased to find out that these guys, dressed in leather, cowboy boots and hats, chains and with mutton chops that would make Lemmy proud were from Italy. Italy! How cool is that? I’m sitting next to Stormtroopers from firkin’ Italy. Later we would find out that you can call Italy either a) Italia or b) Italica or Italian. I’ll let you guess which we used to refer to the four of them.
After chatting and listening to speeches from both Steve and Mary from Lucasfilm, Albin Johnson, founding member of the 501st spoke. Then Mary spoke again. Then Mark Fordham, current Legion Commanding Officer spoke. Then Steve spoke again. And just as we began to think about getting up and heading back to the rooms Steve jumped up again and warned us all that we’d kick ourselves if we left now. Apparently Lucasfilm was stalling for time. Hmmmmm. And then of course after a few more filler speeches Steve got up to the podium. He started in “Ladies and Gentlemen..” and I knew Lucas was there. I looked to my right and coming in the side door was the man himself. I thumbed my camera on and shot this hasty pic before it was fully focused.
George walks in.
Lucas spoke to us for a bit. He seemed a little nervous believe it or not. Later, I mentioned this to Mark Fordham and he said that Marry and Steve told him that for George, that was sticking around for a long time. He must have been pleased.
George walks out and TD-0013 gets his hand shake.
The rest of the night passed uneventfully. Except for the part where I realized that I had to share a twin sized bed with a guy that was my same size. And the part where I tried to curl up on the edge of the bed but then realize that there was no way I could sleep because he was a loud snorer. And that part where I went to a grocery store in LA at 1:00am to find earplugs and an air mattress. And the part where all they could find for me were ear plugs and a pretty, pretty princess blanket. And the part where I slept on the tile with the pretty, pretty princess blanket and all of my broken dreams…ok that part was bullshit. I did sleep on the floor but I didn’t care. I was just happy to be there.
Next up. Day 2.
Back in May the DSG was prepping for the premier of Episode III. Back when Episode II came out it is my understanding that Dan Harkin gave free passes to the DSG in exchange for having troopers and Vader at the premier. So, it wasn’t too much of a leap to expect that the same thing would happen this time around.
I’m not sure exactly how it all happened but in the end there was mass confusion in our ranks over a) if the tickets were free or not and b) if not, who was buying them all so we could all sit together etc. When we found out that Harkins was not going to be providing us with comp tickets and that some folks had bought tickets to the sold out show earlier there was a lot of confusion and a lot of people got mad at one another and things just started to go into melt down.
As far as I’m concerned there was no malicious intent in anyone’s part. I just think there was a lot of assuming and bad communication going on so when things did not go as expected people got upset. In any event, I rather selfishly wanted to make sure that I saw the movie with all my fellow Star Wars freaks so I decided to buy tickets for everyone. There really is no substitute for seeing a movie with fellow fanatics and I wanted to secure this memory because chances are there will never be another opportunity with regards to Star Wars.
I’m not patting myself on the back. In fact I never would have even posted about it if not for what happened last night.
Last night we had a Halloween party and it was a blast. There was lots of food and drink and good friends and good costumes. I didn’t feel like being a trooper so I went as Winnie the Pooh which seemed to please everyone.
About half way through the party Lancer, our current XO, stopped everyone and said he had an announcement. I was kind of listening from the couch just expecting to hear him thank everyone for coming out etc. when all of a sudden he starts bringing up the confusion around the tickets for Episode three. Suddenly he’s saying that the group got together to thank me for buying the tickets and before I know it I’m being handed a big box wrapped in black cloth.
I have to say I didn’t know what to say. I was sort of stunned. Like I said, buying the tickets for everyone was about me securing a memory for myself in addition to helping out my garrison so I had long ago stopped thinking about it. When I pulled the black cloth off I was even more surprised, and really very touched. They had special ordered an absolutely beautiful Kotobukiya Storm Trooper.
What do you say to that kind of generosity? It sounds sappy but even now I’m misty eyed over it. It really means a great deal to me that they would do something like that. I don’t know how to say thank you properly or really express how cool it is. I never know how to say thank you the way I mean it. I suppose that maybe a really good way to express it is to say that this thing is now one of my most prized possessions. It will never leave my desk. Ever.
So if you guys read this, thanks again. I'm very moved by your generosity and I know without a doubt we have best damn garrison ever!
Sincerely,
Neil
P.S. I had to laugh when Kevin (our CO) handed me the box wrapped in black cloth I was so focused on what was under the wraps that I didn’t pay attention to the wraps. I thought it was just some cloth. (Afterward Kevin said “You know I didn’t just hand it to you in a pile of my dirty laundry” HAHAHA!) But it was a special shirt made by Master Replicas specifically for the DSG. You can see a picture of the back below and on the front it reads “Master Replicas: Mobilization 5.19.05”. Evidently it’s a shirt that MR made just for us for helping them advertise their wares during the premier weekend. I probably won’t wear it much because it’s so cool.
