Military Channel's AN OFFICER AND A MOVIE Returns Saturdays, Summer 2012

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Combining military firepower with Hollywood star power like Clint Eastwood, Sean Connery, Denzel Washington, Steve McQueen, Frank Sinatra and John Wayne, Military Channel's AN OFFICER AND A MOVIE returns with a summer of unforgettable military films including Where Eagles Dare, Hamburger Hill, Bat 21, Das Boot, The Alamo, and Raid on Entebbe.

Although packed with the brightest stars, the spotlight for this series is on the decorated military heroes who sit down with host Lou Diamond Phillips, who is currently starring in A&E's Longmire, to share their true stories and expert insight about the actual conflicts that inspired each featured movie.

Guests this summer include Senator Jack Reed (D-RI), General Barry McCaffrey and Navy Rear Admiral Charles Beers, Jr,, as well as a Vietnam POW, founding member of Seal Team 6 and a veteran from Hamburger Hill.While Hollywood's producers adapt real-life heroics for the silver screen, AN OFFICER AND A MOVIE's interview segments share the first-hand accounts and modern-day perspectives of experts and veterans who personally lived the storylines of each film. AN OFFICER AND A MOVIE airs Saturdays at 8 PM ET on the Military Channel, starting with Where Eagles Dare on Saturday, June 9 and Lou Diamond Phillips sits down with Senator Jack Reed (D-Rhode Island), a former Army Ranger and paratrooper.

AN OFFICER AND A MOVIE summer schedule includes:

· Where Eagles Dare Premieres Saturday, June 9 from 8-11 PM E/P Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) joins host Lou Diamond Phillips to discuss Where Eagles Dare, in which Clint Eastwood and Richard Burton play Allied agents staging a daring raid on a castle where the Nazis are holding an American General prisoner. After graduating from West Point in 1971, Sen. Reed became an Army Ranger and a paratrooper, serving with the 82nd Airborne Division as an Infantry Platoon leader, a Company Commander, and a Battalion Staff Officer. He later returned to West Point to teach in the Department of Social Sciences until resigning from active duty in 1979. After earning his law degree, he continued in the Army reserves until June 1991.

· Bat 21 Premieres Saturday, June 16 from 8-10 PM E/P Navy Capt. Gerald Coffee (Ret.) joins Lou Diamond Phillips to relate his own shocking survival story to the one played out by Gene Hackman in the classic war film Bat 21. In 1966, Capt. Coffee was shot down over North Vietnam and, for the next seven years, was held as a POW in Communist prisons. A highly decorated pilot, Capt. Coffee has received the Silver Star, two Legion of Merit awards, the Distinguished Flying Cross, two Bronze Stars, the Air Medal, two Purple Hearts and the Vietnam Service Medal with 13 stars.

· The Alamo Premieres Saturday, June 30 from 8-11 PM E/P The historical 1836 Battle of the Alamo is portrayed in John Wayne's 1960 film, The Alamo. Host Lou Diamond Philips sits down with Four-Star General Barry McCaffrey to discuss his take on the film and his own experience as a young soldier fighting in Central America. A graduate of West Point, Gen. McCaffrey was awarded two Distinguished Service Crosses, three Purple Hearts and two Silver Stars for his service in Vietnam. He commanded the 24th Infantry Division on Operation Desert Storm, served as a Deputy Representative to NATO, and as Assistant Chairman on the Joint Chiefs of Staff. His last command was SOUTHCOMM, where he was in charge of U.S. military activities in Central and South America.

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