Aidan Quinn and Mike Connor talk “Allegiance” - a new Iraq war military drama - VIDEO

Cahir O'Doherty speaks with 'Allegiance's big stars

After receiving a BA from Harvard University in 1997, Connors was commissioned as an infantry lieutenant and completed four years in both the active service and the New York National Guard before enrolling in Columbia University’s Graduate Film Program.

“The main kernel of the story was based on my personal experience. I was on active duty from 1997 to 2001. I got out in September 2001, I moved to New York City and started film school,” Connors says.

“Two weeks before 9/11 I was a newly minted civilian. So I wondered what would happen now? Would I get called back in? The military changed overnight.”

The thing is, there weren’t a lot of call-ups between 2001 to 2004 because Afghanistan was still the focus of special operations. That all changed when the Iraq war was declared, though. Connors was still on the reserve list and he got called back in 2005, just as he was finishing film school.

“I had orders to go to Iraq for two years. I hadn’t put on a uniform in two years and I was not a supporter of the war. But I had all these friends who were going. I got pulled in a lot of different directions,” he recalls.

The push and pull of his divided loyalties proved inspirational. “I went through the whole process of mentally preparing myself and then suddenly they announced they didn’t need me anymore. Political pressure about a backdoor draft made them call it off,” Connors says. 

“I felt guilt over lucking out when a lot of my friends were returning for their second or third tour. That was the impetus behind the film.”

It turns out that it’s not as easy as you think to say no to a war you don’t support when you have family and friends in the ring. 

“My last couple of months of commitment were spent in the New York National Guard. It was my introduction to this weekend warrior culture, having come from a situation where I had been in it every day,” Connors says.

“Once Iraq came around my old National Guard unit got called up and got this 18-month rotation. They were citizen soldiers; they were much older than the regular army guys. I was shocked that the army pulled these guys out of their regular lives to send them to Iraq.”

The public generally doesn’t want to hear about the situation faced by the reservists -- how they become handy fall guys, a standing line between the public and the draft -- because the public realizes they are not participating in the sacrifices others are making in their name, and which they probably have a lot of mixed feelings about to begin with.

“It’s amazing how well the military has held together,” says Connors. “Iraq was probably worse than Vietnam in terms of a no-win situation. Yet somehow it still feels like a fairly professional fighting force that does a pretty solid job given what they’ve been handed.”

Quinn, who plays the get the job done Colonel, agrees.

“I loved the script and the moral dilemma they were facing. I loved the fact that it dealt with reservists from the National Guard being sent back over there again and again, in tour after tour,” he tells the Irish Voice.

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