Telling the story of a World War II Soldier in the European theater and his faithful correspondence with his mother, Schultz’ “Letters From War” music video was an integral part of the CRC’s “Be Safe” campaign. The “period” aspect of the video establishes a strong symbolic relationship between the Soldier of “The Greatest Generation” with the Soldier fighting the War on Terrorism today.
The Department of Defense award ceremony was held at the Pentagon in the Hall of Heroes. Administrative Deputy Secretary of the Army, Mrs. Sandra Riley and Mr. John Hooks, Director of Media and Marketing for the CRC, accepted the award. The production was honored in the Internal/Public Information category.
“Our mission is to save Soldiers lives through accident prevention programs and by helping Soldiers make wise decisions,” commented Hooks. “We knew the song and the video would have a powerful impact on Soldiers, their families and citizens throughout this country and felt that hitting an emotional chord with ‘Letters From War’ was a positive call to action.”
“Letters from War” also won two more first place honors — First place in the Internal/Public Information category of the 2003-2004 Department of Army Visual Information Production Awards and the Barbara Rosser Award, the Army’s top award for a multimedia product for 2003-2004. Supporting Schultz’ radio hit from his current album, Stories & Songs, both the song and video further received nominations for this year’s Gospel Music Association 36th Annual Dove Awards being held in Nashville on April 13.
Directed by Mark Dobiecki and co-produced by Craig Miller Productions and the CRC’s Media and Marketing department, the music video was a collaborative production between the Army and Schultz. Brigadier General Joseph Smith, Commanding General, CRC, invited Schultz to be a part of the campaign not long after the song was released.
