Dale Dye visits Lowcountry; garners Pat Conroy Award

Dale Dye: Pat Conroy Lifetime Achievement Award Tribute Video from Beaufort Film Society on Vimeo.

National USMCCCA Board Member and 2017 Dickson Award recipient Dale Dye visited South Carolina’s Lowcountry last month to receive the inaugural Pat Conroy Lifetime Achievement Award at the Beaufort International Film Festival.

Our own Dale Dye flanked by the Parris Island CG, Brig. Gen. Austin “Sparky” Renforth an Depot Sergeant Major, Sgt. Maj. Rafael Rodreguez prior to Morning Colors on Feb. 23 (note the historic date in WWII Marine Corps history!).

The trip included a visit to Parris Island where Dye served as reviewing officer for a recruit graduation.

The Conroy tribute is named after the late iconic southern novelist and screenwriter who is perhaps Beaufort’s most notable favorite son. Pat Conroy’s word portraits of coastal South Carolina are a tourism director’s dream.

And a Hollywood director’s dream: Beaufort has been the setting for a number of important films, including “The Big Chill” and “Forrest Gump” (the latter of which won Dye acclaim for his advisor work on the critical Vietnam scenes filmed at nearby Hunting Island).

If you watched the tribute above, you may have noticed a few familiar CCs. Micheal Armistead, former LA Chapter president (grey t shirt) and CC Jennifer Brofer, speaking.

Conroy’s writing is particularly dear to Leathernecks: the author was a Marine brat who penned The Great Santini, based on his rough and tumble upbringing by a larger-than-life fighter pilot. Turned into a movie in 1978 (CC Pat Coulter was the technical advisor), the story was Oscar-nominated for Best Picture.

CC Ron Tucker, a documentary filmmaker and retired mustang personnel officer who attacked his collateral duty public affairs duties with relish, heads both the film festival and the Beaufort Film Society along with his bride, Rebecca Hood Tucker. Click here to see Ron’s interview with Dale, which presents perhaps the most comprehensive (and entertaining) look at how Dye got where he is today.

“I hope every CC can watch this,” commented National USMCCCA President Keith Oliver, “especially our youngsters and, really, any of our members who are retiring or EAS-ing or courageously taking off into a brand new career direction.

“Dale gave that Beaufort audience ‘Job Hunting 101’,” Keith said, “or, more to the point, ‘Dream Chasing 101.'”

“It kinda ties-in to our USMCCCA ‘Life After the Corps push’ that we see in Amy Forsythe’s CC website profiles and at our annual ProDev symposia,” he said.

“More than anything, God bless him, Dale’s been showing us what ‘giving back” looks like.”