Captain Dale Dye Talks About HBO'S "The Pacific"

Even if you don't know who Captain Dale Dye, USMC (Ret.) is -- and you darned well ought to know who he is -- you've seen the actors he's trained and the movies and TV projects he's held to his particular high standards.

When you see an interview or a DVD bonus feature in which the pretty young star of a war movie has complained about their pre-shoot boot camp and how without that boot camp, they never would have been able to get into character, to properly do justice to our men and women in uniform, odds are that that boot camp was run by Captain Dye.

Military advisor on films ranging from "Platoon" to "Saving Private Ryan" to "Band of Brothers" to "Tropic Thunder," Dye has become the go-to veteran for directors ranging from Steven Spielberg to Oliver Stone to Brian DePalma. He doesn't just know his stuff on an intellectual level. He lived it, earning multiple Purple Hearts and a Bronze Star for his service in Vietnam.

His most recent gig was on HBO's "The Pacific," where he put the stars, including James Badge Dale, John Seda and Joe Mazzello, through the paces necessary to do justice to the First Marine Division and their campaign through the Pacific front.

Read the rest of this article by Daniel Fienberg -- Here on HitFix.