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Last Modified Monday, April 4, 2011 @ 12:09 AM - Better Viewed in Full Screen Mode
"Lighthouses don't fire cannons to call attention to their shining.
They just shine." -- Dwight L Moody
It was the morning of a beautiful, sunny, Southern California day. My daughter, age 3 ½ at the time, and I were driving away from her ballet lesson. For conversation's sake I asked her what she wanted to be when she grew up. As expected she answered like any young girl leaving the ballet lessons she loved. "Daddy", she said, "I want to be a ballerina."
After driving on for a few quiet moments the silence was broken by my daughter asking me a question. "Daddy", she said, "When you were a little boy, what did you want to be when you grew up?"
I was caught off guard, and fell into pensive thought as I grappled for an answer. What had I really wanted to be when I grew up? Certainly I should have been able to answer that question.
While still in pensive thought my daughter pressed again for an answer. Suddenly, spontaneously, I responded, "I wanted to be like the man I named you after, Cobern Fraser Kelley." Although taken back by the answer I had just given my daughter, Kelley, I knew it came directly from the bottom of my heart.
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As his eyes open he hears Japs moving in closer. Again, Kelley squirms and gropes further out in hopes he'll find the rifle. Suddenly, he feels the ground fall open into a ditch, a drainage basin. He slithers in, and there finds his rifle. With the basin and marsh serving to cover and hide him he follows the ditch until it empties out onto the beach. Along with a crew mate, in a low crouch, he scampers out to his launch to return to the Narwahl, the submarine he is commissioned to. Scampering toward the launch the figures grow small, and eventually fade out into the dark.
A promise made,
a promise kept.
A PROMISE MADE, A PROMISE KEPT
SCREENWRITE 1 -- SCENE 1
Fade In Beach Scene. Dimly lit at night. The soft sound of waves beat against the seashore.
Camera pans slowly from the beach with low shot into a wet marsh area with brush three to four feet high. In the brush, on his back, looking up into the sky, is Kelley. (Played by who, Matt Damon, Matthew McConaughey, Russell Crowe?) It's a life/death situation. Camera moves into an over face shot. Face is sweaty and dirty, but calm. Camera pans up from the face to a below waist shot of Japanese soldiers slowly moving through stabbing their rifle ends with bayonets into the marsh. As they move dangerously close Kelley reaches to his right for his rifle. Inexplicably, it can't be found. He reaches and gropes over and again. It's not there.
Camera pans back to Kelley's face. Perplexed, yet calm, Kelley closes his eyes. Lips not moving, Kelley's voice sounds over in quiet, thoughtful prayer.
KELLEY
A PROMISE MADE, A PROMISE KEPT
During the pre-publication stage of the book, "Kelley's Boys", I had several conversations with Al Epting who followed in Kelley's footsteps as a boy, and later served at the Athens Y for many years as an adult. Al put quite an effort into seeing this project through to completion. He, along with Hayden "Squeaky" Drewry, were two of the greatest legacies Kelley has.
Al shared the promise Kelley made to God when facing a life or death situation in World War II as he hid from Japanese soldiers. It's recorded on pages 89 - 92 in the book. Al hoped the book would be titled, "A Promise Made, A Promise Kept" due to the promise Kelley made, and the promise he kept. A very appropriate title. Perhaps not for the book, but for the full length motion picture to come about Kelley and His Boys.
