2022 Military Story Showcase

The Military Story Showcase recognizes scripts, books, short stories & stage plays in any genre that feature a story about warfare or the military experience.

2022 WINNER

TARAWA

by Caleb Billings

A group of Marines test their mettle at the Battle of Tarawa during World War II.

2022 OFFICIAL SELECTIONS

AIN'T NO GRAVE by Jaime Conti. After undergoing harrowing experiences as a prisoner of war, a woman returns home and struggles with adjusting to civilian life while her father keeps secret his dealings with a cartel that led to her freedom.

ANOTHER 5 MINUTES by Nilesh Yagnik. Inspired by true events. A coming of age story of a boy, his family’s military legacy and his service in the 2003 invasion of Iraq. As a young Army tank commander, he battles the desperate and dangerous enemy, and determined to bring his soldiers home, remembers the lessons his father learned during combat in the jungles of Vietnam.

ASH by Dave Stockwell (based on the book "Route 9 Problem: The Battle for Lang Vei"). A Special Forces medic, forced under fire during the Vietnam War, must attempt to rescue fellow Green Berets trapped by enemy tanks, becoming the first African American awarded the Medal of Honor in Special Forces history. Based on true events. | LangVeiBattle.com

COLD DEAD HANDS by Michael Dunker (story by Michael Dunker & Chris Messina). When the federal government passes a law that bans all semiautomatic weapons in the U.S., they send a task force door-to-door collecting the now illegal weapons.

DAS BAYOU (aka "The Prisoners") by Craig Gary Phillips. During World War II in rural Louisiana, Black soldiers train at a camp alongside Nazi prisoners-of-war. When one soldier notices the German prisoners may be planning an escape attempt, he must face the racial prejudices of his commanding officers and his country as he tries to stop it.

DREADNOUGHT by Nick Wray. World War I - Jutland 1916. From the fog of war and grey wastes of the North Sea one man will emerge heroic from the greatest naval battle of all time. But which man is it? | Twitter: @castlesofsteel

GOD WILLING, AND THE RIVER DON'T RISE by Martin C. Arnest. A true story. John Wayne, Jane Fonda, me, and the Vietnam War in film. | MarineSon.net

HEROES OF THE BULGE by Ronald Pralgo. Herbert Alexander, a wily combat veteran doing battle in the Ardennes forest in ww2 during the Battle of The Bulge, finds he must rely on his comrades to survive.

JUTLAND by Craig Chapin Reed (based on the book "Jutland from the Decks"). Unexpectedly finding themselves in the decisive naval battle of WWI, six ordinary British and German mariners struggle to survive the visually spectacular clash of massive warships and bring their shipmates and themselves home safely. | PentagoetSA.com

LAST OUT: ELEGY OF A GREEN BERET by Lt. Colonel Scott Mann (ret.) Army Green Beret Danny Patton is a modern-day warrior fighting battles that range from tribal Afghanistan to his own living room. | RooftopLeadership.com

MINOTAUR by Tim Auld. A female Gulf War veteran treks through remote wilderness in search of a missing teenager, only to find herself hunted by a soldier convinced he's still in Vietnam. | TimAuld.net

OPERATION VENGEANCE by Mike Ross. WWII drama about a young American fighter pilot who is given the most top secret mission in the war to date, to intercept and shoot down the Japanese Supreme Commander In Chief, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, and the mastermind of the attack on Pearl Harbor.

ORDINARY COURAGE by Richard Stansell-Gamm. On August 1, 1943, 175 B-24 bombers depart North Africa on America’s most daring and arduous aerial raid of World War II – a low-level attack against the Nazis’ oil production center at Ploesti, Romania. A third of the airmen do not return. Five receive the Congressional Medal of Honor.

ORPHAN MOUNTAIN by Steve Dini. A former Army Ranger finds herself in a new war zone when she ventures into the forests of Northern California to rescue her daughter, held captive by an outlaw pot grower.

RITCHIE BOY by Alan J. Field. Inspired by true events, an Austrian concentration camp survivor who has escaped the clutches of a sadistic Nazi commandant is recruited into a top-secret training program as a U.S. Army O.S.S. interrogator only to be captured at the Battle of the Bulge by the same commandant who tortured him. | AlanJField.com

SAVAGE WILDERNESS (Episode 1 "Distant Shores") by Harold Coyle (based on the book). The story of the French and Indian War as seen through the eyes of an exiled Scot who fought for Prince Charles in the ‘45, the second son of an English earl eager to make his mark as a soldier, a young French officer of artillery who is an ardent disciple of Rousseau, a Mohawk warrior determined to reclaim the lands and traditions of his people, and an Irish girl who longs to start a new life in a new land.

SERGEANT FREEMAN by Gloria Browne-Marshall. An Army Sergeant becomes the first woman to train the Army's new Urban Terrorism platoon. The same day, her college-bound daughter goes missing. | Represented by LynnPleshetteAgency.com

SGT VAZQUEZ'S PLAYLIST by Yerania Del Orbe. An Army medic returns home from deployment in Iraq and uses art as a form of therapy to cope with her PTSD. | LatinaMadeMedia.net

SHELL SHOCKED by Kevin Overton. A Vietnam vet suffering with PTSD is triggered when a comrade from beyond the grave shows up to help him get revenge on a evil neighbor.

SREBRENICA by David Kaneen. The story of the downfall of Srebrenica in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

STRONGER WHEN SHE'S BROKEN by SherLann D. Moore. A dying author writes about her journey out of the streets, but she soon reveals that the grass isn't always greener outside of the hood. | SDMooreAuthor.com

THE FENCE by Bill Morales. Based on harrowing true events, Ray Vaquero volunteers to fly combat missions along the Ho Chi Minh Trail. During this time, Ray recounts his life before the war, and the love of his life he has left behind.

THE LAST SQUADRON by Bryce Hatch. After a massive EMP renders the US powerless, a Civil Air Patrol teen gathers his grandfather's ragtag group of veteran airmen to make a museum B-17 Flying Fortress flightworthy and lead a wave of antiquated aircraft against the superior invading force.

THE YOUNGEST DOUGHBOY by Steve Sterling. Ernest Wrentmore is dressed to kill with twin .45 automatics on his hips, a trench knife strapped across his chest. At age 12, Ernest is the youngest American solider in World War I France. He's about to become a hero. Based on a true story. | YoungestDoughboy.com

THEY ALSO SERVE by John McCarney. Inspired by true events. A young combat medic's quest for redemption seems lost when he is ordered to care for newborn infants. | JFMWrites.com

TWO MILLION STEPS by Tommy Anderson. The story of two men who were members of the 25th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry Regiment, Company A. It tells their journey from the formation of the regiment through the end of the war. | TheTommyAnderson.com