Misplaced Pages

Dale Dye
Dye in 2008
Born	Dale Adam Dye Jr. (1944-10-08) October 8, 1944 (age 80) Cape Girardeau, Missouri, U.S.
Education	Missouri Military Academy
Alma mater	University of Maryland University College (BA)
Occupations	Actor technical advisor radio personality writer
Years active	1986–present
Parents	Dale Adam Dye Sr. Della Grace Koehler
Awards	Order of Saint Maurice
Military career
Allegiance	United States of America
Service / branch	United States Marine Corps
Years of service	1964–84
Rank	Captain
Unit	1st Battalion, 5th Marines 2nd Battalion, 5th Marines 2nd Battalion, 1st Marines
Battles / wars	Vietnam War Tet Offensive Lebanese Civil War
Awards	Bronze Star Medal w/ Combat "V" Purple Heart Medal (3) Meritorious Service Medal Joint Service Commendation Medal Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal w/ Combat "V" (2) Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal w/ Combat "V" Combat Action Ribbon (2) See more
Website	daledye.com

Dale Adam Dye Jr. (born October 8, 1944) is an American actor, technical advisor, radio personality and writer. A decorated Marine veteran of the Vietnam War, Dye is the founder and head of Warriors, Inc., a technical advisory company specializing in portraying realistic military action in Hollywood films. Dye has also offered his expertise to television, such as the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers and The Pacific, the Apple TV+ miniseries Masters of the Air, and video games, including the Medal of Honor series.

Early life and education

Dye was born on October 8, 1944, in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, to Dale Adam and Della Grace (née Koehler) Dye. His father was a liquor salesman in and around St. Louis and took Dale with him as he visited working-class taverns. There he heard war stories from World War II veterans. One particular story about man-to-man fighting told by a Marine who said he had fought in the Pacific Theater piqued Dale's attention. He looked up the Battle of Iwo Jima that night and made up his mind to join the U.S. Marines. Dye was educated at St. Joseph's Military Academy in Chicago and the Missouri Military Academy in Mexico, Missouri.

Military career

Dye had hoped to attend the U.S. Naval Academy, but after failing the entrance exam three times and having exhausted his family's meager funds getting through military academy, he enlisted in the U.S. Marines in January 1964. His unit was among the first to deploy to Vietnam in 1965. Officers in the unit noticed his keen observational skills and literary interest, and encouraged him to reclassify as a combat correspondent. He became one of a very few Marine combat correspondents. He sent stories to military publications and to the hometown newspapers of fellow Marines. As a correspondent, he saw more battles than many low-ranking infantrymen. Dye developed an immense respect for the "grunts" who took the brunt of any action.

Dye was wounded during the Tet Offensive in 1968 and had to recuperate in a rear area. During this time, the 2nd Battalion 3rd Marines — the unit he had traveled with — was preparing for Operation Ford. Dye persuaded the battalion commander to let him accompany the battalion as a war correspondent. During the next week, the battalion engaged in a number of firefights with units of the North Vietnamese People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN). On March 18, 1968, Dye replaced an assistant machine gunner who had been killed. The machine gun position was isolated forward of the remainder of the battalion. Although he was wounded, Dye exposed himself to intense enemy fire to retrieve ammunition for the machine gun to help hold off PAVN soldiers during an all-night firefight. During other engagements, he exposed himself to enemy fire to rescue several wounded Marines and a Navy corpsman. As a result of his actions, he was awarded the Bronze Star Medal with Combat "V" for heroism.

"Dye's heart is with the grunts", said Bob Rea, who worked with Dye as a combat correspondent during the worst of Tet. "He feels like he owes something to those people. He is a grunt wannabe." During three tours of duty in South Vietnam, he participated in 31 combat operations. During his 1967-to-1968 and 1969-to-1970 tours of duty, he was attached to two different battalions of the 1st Marine Division. Dye spent a total of 13 years as an enlisted Marine, rising to the rank of Master Sergeant before being appointed a warrant officer in 1976. Afterward, he entered into the Limited Duty Program and became commissioned as a captain. He is considered a "mustang", an enlisted man who receives a commission as an officer. While he was a captain, he was deployed to Beirut for duty with the Multinational Force in Lebanon in 1982 and 1983. Shortly after his return, the Marine barracks were attacked, resulting in the deaths of 241 Americans, most of whom had been stationed at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.

Fellow Marine correspondent Gustav Hasford dubbed him "Daddy D.A." (as he was among the oldest of the correspondents) and included him as a character in his first semi-autobiographical Vietnam novel The Short-Timers, and more extensively in his second, The Phantom Blooper. The movie based on Hasford's first novel Full Metal Jacket included the "Daddy D.A." character (played by Keith Hodiak), though neither the character nor Dye's name is explicitly mentioned in the dialogue.

In his book Dispatches, journalist Michael Herr provides a vivid picture of Dye during the chaos of the Tet Offensive and the Battle of Huế:

And there was a Marine correspondent, Sergeant Dale Dye, who sat with a tall yellow flower sticking out of his helmet cover, a really outstanding target. He was rolling his eyes around and saying, 'Oh yes, oh yes, Charlie's got his shit together here, this will be bad," and smiling happily. It was the same smile I saw a week later when a sniper's bullet tore up a wall two inches above his head, odd cause for amusement in anyone but a grunt.

Later career

Technical advising

Dye retired from the Marine Corps in 1984 and founded Warriors, Inc. The company specializes in training actors in war films to portray their roles realistically, and provides research, planning, staging and on-set consultation for directors and other film-production personnel. His company is the top military consultant to Hollywood. While on active duty, Dye was a combat correspondent and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from the University of Maryland University College. After retiring, Dye became a correspondent for the Soldier of Fortune magazine. He worked for the magazine for one year, during which he worked in Central America, providing guerrilla warfare training to troops in El Salvador and Nicaragua while reporting on conflicts in the region.

Dye was determined to make Hollywood's depictions of battle more realistic. After unsuccessfully offering his services to a number of directors, he pitched fellow Vietnam War veteran Oliver Stone a plan to put actors through a mock boot camp before production of the movie Platoon. Dye put the principal actors—including Charlie Sheen, Willem Dafoe, Johnny Depp, and Forest Whitaker—through an immersive 30-day military-style training regimen. He limited how much food and water they received; when the actors slept, he fired blanks to keep the tired actors awake. Dye, who had a small role in the movie as Captain Harris, also wrote the novelization based on Stone's screenplay.

Dye also worked as a military technical adviser and personal trainer on the 1992 film Last of the Mohicans, and after working in the same capacity on the acclaimed HBO series Band of Brothers (2001), producers Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg called upon his expertise again for their follow-up series The Pacific (2010) and Apple TV+ series Masters of the Air (2024). In 2017 Dye was recognised as an Honorary Member of the 506th Airborne Infantry Regiment (the regiment under the command of General Robert Sink, whom Dye played in Band of Brothers) for his work in bringing a high degree of quality and realism to cinematic portrayals of combat.

Acting

After Platoon's critical success, Dye played a role in another Vietnam War movie, Casualties of War, and also prominently appeared as Colonel Robert Sink in the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers, on which his company also worked.

Dye appeared in Outbreak portraying Lieutenant Colonel Briggs, a U.S. Army officer. He played Theodore Roosevelt's superior officer Colonel Leonard Wood in the TNT miniseries Rough Riders. He appeared in Saving Private Ryan as an aide to General George Marshall; in Under Siege and Under Siege 2: Dark Territory as Captain Garza, an admiral's aide; in Spy Game as Commander Wiley during the rescue sequence; in Mission: Impossible as Frank Barnes of the CIA; in JFK as General Y; and in Starship Troopers as a high-ranking officer in the aftermath of the Brain Bug capture.

Dye played himself in Entourage, teaching fictional character Vincent Chase to scuba-dive in preparation for his role in Aquaman. He appeared in the 2010 film Knight and Day with Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz, and in Larry Crowne with Tom Hanks the following year. He was the technical adviser for the 1994 Oliver Stone movie Natural Born Killers, making a brief appearance as a fictionalized, police-lieutenant version of himself. Dye played Col. Porter in the TNT science fiction series Falling Skies from 2011 to 2013. As of 2015 he was preparing to direct two films, No Better Place to Die, which he wrote, and Citizen Soldiers. He had a cameo appearance as New Founding Father Donald Talbott in the 2014 film The Purge: Anarchy.

Writing

Dye has written several novels, including Run Between the Raindrops in 1985 (also published as Citadel) and Conduct Unbecoming (1992), and the novelization of the film Platoon. Along with wife Julia and comic-book artist Gerry Kissell, Dye created the critically acclaimed and best-selling graphic novel Code Word: Geronimo (IDW Publishing, 2011), which tells the story of the Navy SEAL raid on Osama bin Laden's compound.

Radio work and video games

During the Iraq War, Dye was hired as a military commentator by radio station KFI AM 640 in Los Angeles and given a two-hour radio show. He hosted the History Channel's documentary series The Conquerors. Dye consulted during development of the Medal of Honor video games series, and lent his voice and likeness to the character Gunnery Sergeant Jack Lauton in Medal of Honor: Rising Sun. He was featured in two tracks on Hoobastank's CD Every Man for Himself. Dye reprised his role as Colonel Robert Sink in the Brothers in Arms video game series, for which he also provided his likeness.

Bibliography

• Dye, Captain Dale & Dye, Dr. Julia (2011). Code Word: Geronimo. San Diego, California: IDW Publishing. ISBN 978-1613770979.
• Dye, Dale (1992). Conduct Unbecoming (paperback ed.). New York: Berkley Publishing Group. ISBN 0425132366.
• Dye, Dale A. (2013). Beirut File. Shake Davis Series (paperback ed.). North Hills, California: Warriors Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0989798303.
• Dye, Dale A. (2012). Chosin File. Shake Davis Series (paperback ed.). North Hills, California: Warriors Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0985338800.
• Dye, Dale A. (2014). Contra File. Shake Davis Series (paperback ed.). North Hills, California: Warriors Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0989798341.
• Dye, Dale A. (2008). Laos File. Shake Davis Series (paperback ed.). North Hills, California: Warriors Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0982167007.
• Dye, Dale A. (2013). Outrage: Author's Preferred Edition (paperback ed.). North Hills, California: Warriors Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0985338855.
• Dye, Dale A. (2010). Peleliu File. Shake Davis Series (paperback ed.). North Hills, California: Warriors Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0982167014.
• Dye, Dale A. (1986). Platoon. New York: Charter Books. ISBN 1121560644.
• Dye, Dale A. (1985). Run Between the Raindrops (paperback ed.). North Hills, California: Warriors Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0989798372.
• Dye, Dale A. & Laemlein, Tom (2015). Small Arms of the Vietnam War: A Photographic Study. North Hills, California: Warriors Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0986195518.

Filmography

Film

Television

Video games

Military awards

Dye's military decorations and awards include:

	Bronze Star Medal w/ Combat "V"
	Purple Heart w/ two 5⁄16" Gold Stars
	Meritorious Service Medal
	Joint Service Commendation Medal
	Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal w/ Combat "V" and one 5⁄16" Gold Star
	Air Force Commendation Medal
	Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal w/ Combat "V"
	Combat Action Ribbon w/ one 5⁄16" Gold Star
	Navy Presidential Unit Citation w/ three 3⁄16" bronze stars
	Navy Unit Commendation w/ one 3⁄16" bronze star
	Meritorious Unit Commendation w/ one 3⁄16" bronze star
	Marine Corps Good Conduct Medal w/ three 3⁄16" bronze stars
	Marine Corps Expeditionary Medal
	National Defense Service Medal
	Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal
	Vietnam Service Medal w/ three 3⁄16" bronze stars
	Humanitarian Service Medal
	Sea Service Deployment Ribbon w/ two 3⁄16" bronze stars
	Navy and Marine Corps Overseas Service Ribbon
	Republic of Vietnam Staff Service Medal (2nd Class)
	Republic of Vietnam Meritorious Unit Citation (Gallantry Cross) w/ Palm
	Republic of Vietnam Meritorious Unit Citation (Civil Actions) w/ Palm
	Republic of Vietnam Campaign Medal w/ 1960– Device

See also

• List of notable people from Missouri
• List of notable United States Marines

References

1. "Dale Dye Biography (1944–)". filmreference.com. Retrieved September 26, 2014.
2. ^ DE JONGE, PETER (November 13, 2005). "Dale Dye Will Make a Man Out of You". The New York Times.
3. ^ "Dale Dye Is Hollywood's Drill Sergeant". April 25, 2014. Retrieved April 8, 2015.
4. Szoldra, Paul (March 26, 2015). "Here's how Hollywood legend Dale Dye earned the Bronze Star for heroism in Vietnamm". Archived from the original on July 7, 2015. Retrieved April 8, 2015.
5. Herr, Michael (1991). Dispatches (1st Vintage International ed.). New York: Vintage Books. pp. 73–74. ISBN 978-0679735250.
6. "Dale Dye Biography". daledye.com. Archived from the original on October 25, 2012. Retrieved September 26, 2014.
7. Rierson, Richard (March 14, 2013). "26 – Dale Dye: Author, Actor, Founder of Warriors, Inc". Dose of Leadership. Archived from the original on September 23, 2015. Retrieved April 8, 2015.
8. photo: 22 ribbons

Further reading

• Herr, Michael (1977). "Chapter 2: Hell Sucks". Dispatches. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. pp. 70–85.

External links

• Official website
• Warriors, Inc.
• Dale Dye at IMDb
• Dale Dye at LeaderNetwork.org

• Biography
• Business
• Film
• Literature
• Radio
• Television
• Video games

• 1944 births
• 20th-century American writers
• American male film actors
• American male television actors
• American male voice actors
• American male writers
• Living people
• Male actors from Missouri
• Military personnel from Missouri
• Missouri Military Academy alumni
• People from Cape Girardeau, Missouri
• Radio personalities from Missouri
• Recipients of the Meritorious Service Medal (United States)
• Recipients of the Order of Saint Maurice
• United States Marine Corps officers
• United States Marine Corps personnel of the Vietnam War
• University of Maryland Global Campus alumni
• Writers from Missouri