final credits - raymond j. plouhar
Ray Plouhar's name won't likely register with many people.
Some may recognise him as the United States Marine recruiting officer seen approaching prospective grunts in a mall parking lot in Michael Moore's 2004 documentary film "Fahrenheit 9/11."
U.S. Marine Staff Sgt. Raymond J. Plouhar, 30, died June 26th, 2006 of wounds suffered while conducting combat operations in Iraq's volatile Anbar province.
As with all issues political, truth is often shrouded in shades of grey.
Although Plouhar willingly appeared in the movie, his father said Plouhar didn't realise it would criticize the war. Some reports indicated his son was ordered to appear in Moore’s film after the Marines were led to believe this was for a TV documentary.
"I'm proud that my son wanted to protect the freedom of this country whether we all agree with the war or not," he said.
Plouhar grew up in Lake Orion, about 30 miles north of Detroit. He was stationed at Camp Pendleton, California and had taken four years off from active duty to serve as a recruiter in Flint after donating one of his kidneys to his uncle.
In Moore's film, Plouhar and Sgt. Dale Kortman are seen speaking to young men in one of Flint, Michagan's poorer neighbourhoods.
They chose to recruit at the Courtland mall rather than at the Genesee Valley mall in the suburbs. According to Moore, they had a hard time recruiting young people there.
Plouhar says in the film, "It’s better to get them when they’re [in] ones and twos. And work on them that way."
A 'teacher's guide' discussion of the scene (“Waiting to Get Recruited”) can be found at Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 web site.
Plouhar served his country for 14 years. His sister and grandfather served in the U.S. Army.
Plouhar had only 38 days left in his second tour of Iraq and had been there a little more than four months during his most recent assignment.
He was killed by a roadside bomb.
Raymond J. Plouhar has a Bacon number of 3.