Monday, May 25, 2015

MEMORIAL DAY, 2015 - LT. WILLIAM "FITZ" FITZGERALD


'THE TWILIGHT ZONE'
"THE PURPLE TESTAMENT"

"Infantry platoon, U.S. Army, Phillipine Islands, 1945. These are the faces of the young men who fight. As if some omniscient painter had mixed a tube of oils that were at one time earth brown, dust gray, blood red, beard black, and fear - yellow white, and these men were the models. For this is the province of combat and these are the faces of war."
- Rod Serling

Somehow Lieutenant William "Fitz" Fitzgerald gained the power to foretell who was going to die when he saw an eerie glow envelope that person's face. Whether this was some latent mutant power triggered by the horrors of war around him is unknown, but Fitz soon realized that he could accurately predict that these brothers in arms whom he saw with glowing faces would die.

His superior officer claimed not to believe him, but nevertheless Captain Riker left behind his family pictures and his wedding ring when he was about to embark on a mission which Fitz claimed would be his last. (Captain Riker, an uncle of Darrin Stephens, was an ancestor of Commander William Riker who served in Starfleet in the 25th Century.)

Eventually Fitz saw the strange glow on the face of his driver and on his own face in a mirror's reflection and he resigned himself to his fate. The jeep exploded from a land mine farther down the road.

"From William Shakespeare, Richard the Third, a small excerpt. The line reads, 'He has come to open the purple testament of bleeding war.' And for Lieutenant William Fitzgerald, A Company, First Platoon, the testament is closed. Lieutenant Fitzgerald has found the Twilight Zone."
- Rod Serling


Lt. William Fitzgerald joins our Memorial Day remembrances of those who died in service to our country (Toobworld version):
  • Colonel Henry Blake - 2006
  • General Frank Savage - 2008
  • Joe Cartwright - 2010
  • Sgt. Chip Saunder - 2011
  • Colonel Sherman Potter - 2012
  • Joe Kennedy - 2012
  • Mr. Roberts - 2013
  • Eugene Sledge - 2014
  • Lt. Gil Hanley - 2014
In the alternate reality of Earth Prime-Time, they paid the ultimate price.

Good night and may God bless.

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1 comment:

  1. Mike Doran2:49 PM

    True story:

    Early in 1960, William Reynolds made a pilot for ABC, The Islanders, produced, written, and directed by Richard L. Bare.
    Reynolds and Bare had previously worked together on this Twilight Zone episode, "The Purple Testament".

    During the filming of the Islanders pilot, Bare and Reynolds were flying to a location in bad weather, when the plane they were in crashed in the water.

    Bare and Reynolds were able to get clear of the wreckage, and though both men sustained broken legs, managed to swim to shore - on their backs.
    While they were swimming, this conversation ensued:

    Bare: "Hey Bill, you know what's on TV tonight?"

    Reynolds: " Yeah .. 'The Purple Testament'!"

    Bare: "So don't look at me!"

    (Cribbed from Bare's autobiography, Confessions of a Hollywood Director.

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