Award-winning actor and humanitarian Gary Sinise and Sleeping Dog Productions, the award-winning aviation and historical documentary production company, are set to release “High Flight”, the documentary narrated by Sinise that also chronicles his 2011 experience at Beale Air Force Base in California preparing for his flight in a U2 spy plane. As this was going to be a unique and special mission, Sinise engaged his pals at Sleeping Dog to film his training, the flight, and daily life among those who dedicate their lives to keeping the U2 flying.
The 86,000 acre Beale AFB, originally an army training site and prisoner of war camp in the 1940’s, is the nation’s headquarters for the U2 program developed after the USSR became a nuclear power in the 1950’s. One of the most extraordinary defense systems ever developed by the United States, the U2 Dragon Lady flies at the space equivalent altitude of 70,000 feet, higher than any other defense aircraft. A unique aircraft in the history of aviation, the U2 remains in frontline service more than 50 years after its first flight, due to its ability to fly to the very edge of space, over objectives that are detected on very short notice, something satellites can’t match.
Flying a manned vehicle to 70,000 feet, an environment deadly to the human body, takes incredible preparation, skill and courage, as Sinise learns first hand. “That’s twice as high as any commercial airliner flies and forty thousand feet higher than Mt. Everest, the world’s tallest mountain. It suddenly hit me that for a few incomparable minutes, I would be the highest human on planet earth,” said Sinise, one of fewer than 1,000 people in over 50 years to ever make the dangerous flight. He is now a member of what Air Force insiders call, The High Flyers Club.
“High Flight” DVD Includes:
• Brief history of Beale Air Force Base and the U2 Program
• Exclusive interviews with Beale personnel and U2 pilots
• Detailed look at the flight preparation and risks of flight
• Music by CSI:NY composer Bill Brown
• Moment by moment video footage of Sinise’s U2 flight from ground to 70,000 feet and back
• Close look into Gary Sinise and his foundation’s humanitarian work
• Bonus content featuring a look at the award winning “Uncle Jack-A Chicago Story”
• And much more…
The film was produced, executive produced, and personally financed by Sinise, and donated to the Gary Sinise Foundation for sale exclusively via the foundation website www.garysinisefoundation.org with all proceeds going directly to the foundation supported programs. To view the “High Flight” trailer please visit http://youtu.be/IS1sgIgoXsY.
ABOUT THE GARY SINISE FOUNDATION
At the Gary Sinise Foundation, we serve our nation by honoring our defenders, veterans, first responders, their families, and those in need. We do this by creating and supporting unique programs designed to entertain, educate, inspire, strengthen, and build communities.
The experiences of war leave an indelible impact on our service men and women. Upon their return to civilian life, the physical, emotional, and psychological challenges they and their families face are often very difficult. As citizens, supporting our country’s heroes is a responsibility each of us must carry – and the Gary Sinise Foundation is committed to ensuring that the sacrifices of our brave defenders are never forgotten.
In 2011, the Gary Sinise Foundation proudly partnered with Tunnel to Towers Foundation to create Building for America’s Bravest™, a program designed to construct custom Smart Homes for our nation’s most severely wounded veterans. Each house features fully-automated amenities to ease their unimaginable life changes and help restore their independence. Twenty-five Smart Homes will have been constructed or broken ground by the end of 2013, each for a wounded warrior and their family.
For the past decade, Gary Sinise & the Lt. Dan Band have brought their exhilarating live performances to our nation’s defenders and their supporters around the world. Not only do these concerts raise the morale and spirits of our servicemen and women, they remain the cornerstone of fundraising efforts for the Gary Sinise Foundation and its network of non-profit partnerships.
Additionally, the Foundation has created programs such as Dining with Defenders to serve hearty meals for deploying troops at LAX, Theatre for the Brave offering free dinner and performances at the Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago, Wounded Warrior, Family & Caregiver Appreciation Day Festivals to boost the morale and spirits of the patients, their families and the medical staff at military hospitals, and the Gary Sinise Foundation Emergency Relief Fund dedicated to assist those in need.
For more information, please visit: www.garysinisefoundation.org
ABOUT SLEEPING DOG PRODUCTIONS
Sleeping Dog Productions is a multi-award-winning producer of aviation and historical documentaries whose mission is to produce original television, Internet Protocol Television and web programming for companies, organizations and individuals, in multiple formats, including – but not limited to – high definition video.
Together, partners Jon Tennyson and Scott Guyette have produced six series for five cable networks and received Telly Awards for “Uncle Jack – A Chicago Tale”, “In Their Own Words”, “Who is Sean D. Tucker” episode of Sean D. Tucker’s “Logbook”, “Boss” episode of Sean D. Tucker’s “Logbook”, “Airshow!” episode of “Wings To Adventure”, “Living History” episode of “Wings to Adventure”, “The Cade Museum of Innovation and Invention” and “Georgia Aviation’s First Family”.
ABOUT GARY SINISE:
In 2008 he received the Presidential Citizens Medal, the second highest civilian honor awarded to citizens for exemplary deeds performed in service of the nation. He is one of only 3 actors in history to have received the honor. Other awards include The Medal of Honor’s Bob Hope Excellence in Entertainment Award, The Spirit of the USO Award, The Ellis Island Medal of Honor, The Harry S. Truman Good Neighbor Award, and the Heart of a Patriot Award from USO of Illinois. In April 2011 he received the USC School of Social Work’s Crystal Heart, the school’s highest honor for his outstanding community service, and the university established the Gary Sinise Endowed Scholarship in the School of Social Work in his name to support further education in the area of military social work.
Sinise has done hundreds of personal appearances and concerts with the Lt. Dan Band worldwide, mostly for military related organizations. He has participated in over 40 tours and made over 150 appearances for the USO alone, and traveled to bases in Alaska and throughout the US, and overseas to locations such as Kuwait, Iraq, Afghanistan, Germany, Belgium, The UK, The Netherlands, Italy, UAE, Qatar, Korea, Singapore, Diego Garcia, Okinawa and Guantanamo Bay, raising the spirits and boosting morale of hundreds of thousands of troops and their families.
As a result of Sinise’s first two trips to Iraq, he started Operation International Children with Seabiscuit author Laura Hillenbrand, which has worked with schools in the U.S., corporate sponsors and People to People International to supply the military with well over a quarter of a million school supply kits, along with more than half a million toys and thousands of blankets, backpacks, pairs of shoes, Arabic-language books, and sets of sports equipment to provide to children in conflict areas.
Sinise serves as the spokesperson for the American Veterans Disabled for Life Memorial (www.avdlm.org/site/c.gnKFIJNqEqG/b.5307877/k.B20F/About_the_Memorial.htm); traveling the country to raise funds to build the memorial to honor America’s 3 million living disabled military veterans, which broke ground in 2010. He was involved in raising funds for The Pentagon Memorial (www.whs.mil/memorial) located just southwest of The Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, where one can find a permanent outdoor memorial to the 184 people killed in the building, and on American Airlines Flight 77. He also helped raise funds to build The Brooklyn Wall of Remembrance (www.brooklynwall.us) in KeySpan Park, to honor the first responders, those fire, police and emergency personnel from across the nation who raced to the sites after the terrorist attacks, risking their lives in service to others.
Currently, Sinise stars as Detective Mac Taylor and is also a producer of CBS’ highly successful “CSI: NY.”
