Based on the true experiences of Lt. Colonel Michael Strobl who wrote eloquently of them in a widely circulated 2004 article Taking Chance is a profoundly emotional look at the military rituals taken to honor its war dead as represented by a fallen Marine killed in Iraq Lance Corporal Chance Phelps. Working as a strategic analyst at Marine Corps Base Quantico in VA Lt. Col. Strobl (Kevin Bacon) learns that Phelps had once lived in his hometown and volunteers to escort the body to its final resting place in Wyoming. As Strobl journeys across America he discovers the great diligence and dignity in how the military and all those involved with preparing and transporting the body handle their duties. Equally important he encounters hundreds of people affected by Chances death a vast majority of whom never knew him. This collective grieving eventually causes Lt. Col. Strobl a veteran of Desert Storm now assigned to office duty to probe his own guilt about not re-deploying to Iraq for the current conflict. Arriving in Wyoming Lt. Col. Strobl completes his catharsis when he encounters Chances gracious family and friends?? and discovers an extraordinary outpouring of community support.
]]>Amazon.comThe made-for-HBO Taking Chance is based on perhaps the single most moving artifact to come out of the Second Gulf War?? Lt. Col. Mike Strobl's first-person narrative of his voluntary mission escorting the body of a fellow Marine killed in Iraq. Strobl (played in the film by Kevin Bacon) hadn't known Lance Cpl. Chance Phelps but?? not