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Post Script Magazine (England)
"For All the Right Reasons"
March 22, 2006
by Alec Kerr
Monroe Mann has created a burgeoning empire poised to break through the mainstream. But when the actor-musician-author-businessman-producer was called to duty in Iraq he put his dreams on hold.
Mann, 28, is a multi-hyphenated extraordinaire with a resume of projects longer than some shopping lists.
He is the founder Unstoppable Artists, LLC, CEO of Loco Dawn Films, author of two books, lead singer of the band Running for Famous, and an actor with numerous TV credits.
He is also an intelligence officer in the US National Guard.
When the war in Iraq began three years ago, it was inevitable that Mann would be sent.
Lieutenant Monroe Mann spent a month in Kuwait and 11 months in Iraq, where he was an intelligence advisor to the fourth Iraqi Army.
His duties included training Iraqi soldiers and officers on interrogation, source handling, map reading, terrain analysis, and debriefings. Mann also helped them conduct missions.
THE RIGHT REASONS
Based on his experiences in Iraq, Mann believes that we are there for the right reasons, and that we should not pull out until the job is finished.
"Every day, at least three or four Iraqis came up to me just to say thank you, and to tell me how grateful they are that Saddam Hussen is gone," said Mann in an email interview.
According to Mann, before the war there was no free press in Iraq, but now there are hundreds of independent newspapers, magazines, and TV stations.
"The citizens didn't even have internet before we came. Now I speak with my new Iraqi friends through their brand spanding new Yahoo email accounts that they access through internet cafes we helped establish."
A MESSAGE TO AMERICA
Mann experienced the intense images you expect in wartime firsthand. A car bomb exploded outside his window, a Chinese rocket landed ten feet from him, but didn't explode, and a restaurant he had eaten at the previous day was blown up.
Yet the most memorable moment of his time there was when an Iraqi asked to leave a message to his video camrea.
"When I said, 'okay, what is your message?' he said to the camera in broken English: 'Oprah! If you watching, I want you know that we love you!'"
BACK IN BUSINESS
Now that Monroe is back, things are better than when he left.
He is now speaking on the college circuit where a single one-hour speech on leadership and networking earns him $1,500. his band is also making rounds at colleges.
Four new books are in the works, including one he wrote while in Iraq. In the Wake, his first film production at Loco Dawn Films is set to begin production in autumn.
"I think what the war did for me is help me realise even more poignantly how short life is, and how quickly life can be taken from us."
(c) 2006 PostScript Magazine/University of Westminster
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