Matt Bosack is a TV writer and producer with credits on NCIS: Hawai’i (CBS) – co-creator; SEAL Team (CBS/Paramount) – supervising producer; Warrior Nun (Netflix); The Player (NBC/Sony) and more. After an honorable discharge from the United States Air Force, Bosack earned a B.A. in sociology from UCLA, and then an MFA with distinction from USC’s graduate screenwriting program, before earning a fellowship to the Writers on the Verge program at NBC. In this essay for ICT’s 25th anniversary, Bosack looks back to 2006 – 2016, when he worked here on the battalion-level command trainer UrbanSim – and on that time we sent him to present at the Joint Services Conference on Counterinsurgency (where he had to follow the future 26th Secretary of Defense.)
I knew it was going to be an auspicious day.
Despite being a civilian, and still in my mid-20s, I’d been tasked with presenting UrbanSim, a Counterinsurgency (COIN) trainer, at the Joint Services (Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard) Conference on Counterinsurgency.
I’d woken up early that morning to iron my button-down blue shirt in the Fairfield Inn. I checked myself again in the mirror. I didn’t really know what look I was trying to go for. Nevertheless, I told myself: Today is my day. (Life brings many blessings, little as freeing as youthful ignorance.)
UrbanSim had been developed at USC’s Institute for Creative Technologies (ICT) for the pre-command course at Fort Leavenworth, the United States Army Garrison in Leavenworth Country, Kansas. It’s a PC-based virtual training application for practicing the art of mission command in complex counterinsurgency and stability operations, and includes a game-based practice environment, a web-based multimedia primer on doctrinal concepts of counterinsurgency and a suite of scenario authoring tools.
My presentation at the Joint Services Conference on Counterinsurgency was going to focus on how UrbanSim had taken on a life of its own, how it was adapted—and could continue to be adapted—to meet COIN learning objectives at all echelons. While waiting for my speaking slot I was riding that line between anxiety and excitement, as only public speaking can elicit, but I knew I was well-prepared and ready. My ICT-issued laptop was prepped, ready to hook up for my presentation.
It was almost my turn. Just one more speaker before it was my time to wow the crowd.
…….and then 4-Star General “Mad Dog” James Norman Mattis (who later became the 26th United States Secretary of Defense, 2017 – 2019) took to the microphone.
Yes, my presentation, which followed General Mathis, went great. Just not, you know, “war hero got a five minute standing ovation” great. But it was moments like these that defined my decade at ICT.
When I look back on my time, I can’t believe what I was able to do—what the leadership there trusted me to do. I used to think that it was crazy that they let a 20-something year old go and represent their organization at such an important conference.
But it’s only now I realize it wasn’t crazy, it was culture. A culture of support. For people. For innovation. And the belief in letting people thrive.
INTERN. PROJECT SPECIALIST. WRITER. SPECIAL PROJECT MANAGER
I first joined ICT as an undergraduate Intern in 2006 (while attending UCLA – I know, sorry).
Then, when I graduated in 2007, I was offered a full-time position at ICT as a Project Specialist, where I felt like I gamed the system because I didn’t “specialize” in anything. During that time, I helped edit videos, did research, and vetted dialogue in scripts since I had been around the Military my whole life. As a Japanese-American army brat, my family has worked for three generations in various assignments around the world.
Again, it’s only now I realize what this was: Randy Hill, Lori Weiss, Julia Kim and Ryan McAlinden saw potential in me that I didn’t even recognize yet, and they were giving me an opportunity to realize that potential.
It wasn’t long before I was put on UrbanSim, where I was tasked with doing research and assisting the writers of the game in any way I could. A couple weeks in, those writers dropped out. The narrative-based instructional trainer was without someone to come up with the, well, narrative.
I always loved writing. And filmmaking for that matter. So channeling that youthful ignorance, I was brazen enough to raise my hand and offer to write the narrative for the game. In what I once thought was an act of desperation, they actually let me write it. I assumed it was until they found a more experienced writer. But another lead writer never came along.
I should have failed. Because it wasn’t just writing a story. I had to write branching narratives tied to social models written in Python. Code the story “beats” in Extensible Markup Language (XML). Understand the fundamentals of game design. And let me be clear. I majored in Sociology at UCLA. I knew none of this stuff.
But my colleagues helped me. David Pynadath spent hours upon patient hours teaching me about PsychSim, the incredible social model he built. The amazing programming team accommodated me breaking the system almost every time I committed new code (Chirag Merchant, Ray New, and Joe Crotchett all deserve Sainthood). In the end, I didn’t fail because ICT is a place where creativity, technology, and innovation all work together, because the people who represent each of those areas work together.
And through all of that support, UrbanSim became a state of the art mission command complex counterinsurgency and stability operations game that has now been used by thousands of Servicemembers, was featured in The Atlantic (“SimCity Baghdad” 2010), and became an Army Program of Record.
UrbanSim was the first major project I worked on, but I would go on to be a Special Project Manager, where I continued to write for many projects but also do all kinds of other fun things, too. I performed motion capture! I became the voice for many of the ELITE: Emergent Leader Immersive Training Environment characters! I designed games! I… managed million dollar budgets? Kicking and jumping under the motion capture grid at the Mixed Reality Lab (MxR) was one thing, but there I was, mid-20s, responsible for effort allocations and balancing budgets. Again, Sociology major. But again, thanks to people like Cheryl Birch and Milton Rosenberg, I learned how to deliver a project on time and on budget.
NEXT STEP: HOLLYWOOD
It was about five or six years in when the Creative Director at the time, Kim LeMasters, took me under his wing. Ever since I was a kid, I had always wanted to work in the Film and TV industry. Hence, my proclivity toward writing. And here I was, sitting across from the man who once ran CBS Entertainment and Stephen J. Cannell Productions. Absorbing every lesson and tip he was willing to give.
Then one day, he asked me what I wanted to do five years from then.
I told him I wanted to write.
He asked, “Sure. But here? Or there?” He pointed over his shoulder at the Hollywood sign in the distance.
It was the first time anybody who had worked in that world told me I might have what it takes. Let alone someone with his experience and street cred.
So I applied to USC’s graduate screenwriting program and told myself if I got in, I would pursue a career in film and TV writing.
A few months later, I got in.
Back at ICT, Matt Trimmer, my supervisor during the time I attended the graduate program, supported me in ways I couldn’t believe, along with the leadership team. It was a full time graduate program, but they allowed me to keep my position and work around my class schedules. Because of that, it saved me thousands in tuition—as USC pays a portion for employees—and it meant I still had an income while I was in school. I was also able to continue doing the work I so valued at the ICT.
Not many employers would do that. ICT not only supported me in my growth within their walls, they supported me in my growth outside, as well. They were essentially facilitating my eventual exit, yet I only ever felt enthusiasm and support throughout.
I graduated with Distinction from the School of Cinematic Arts, and not long after, I was fortunate enough to be staffed on The Player (NBC) starring Wesley Snipes.
But by that point, I couldn’t split my time anymore, and I had to part ways with ICT. It was bittersweet. I spent my entire 20s at ICT. First at Fiji Way and then Waterfront Drive. I loved all of it. And I loved everyone there.
NCIS: HAWAI’I
I took with me many wonderful memories from ICT, but it wasn’t until I became co-creator and co-showrunner on CBS’ NCIS: Hawai‘i that I realized I’d gained so much other valuable experience, too.
Being a writer in Hollywood requires more than writing. It’s being able to work well and collaborate as a team in a writer’s room. It’s about learning how to write within a defined structure, both in the screenplay format but also the structure and story beats of a particular show. It’s going into a room full of people and being able to pitch your TV show or movie, even if a titan of the industry just spoke before you. And eventually, as a showrunner, it’s about being able to deliver a project… on time and on budget.
Every part of my journey with ICT made me who I am today. And I owe every bit of my success to the place that prepared me for every facet of the job I’m doing now. As a TV showrunner, I make sure never to forget all the intangibles of that magnificent place that has allowed it, and its people, to thrive—the tenets of supporting your team, trusting the people around you, and finding and nurturing talent no matter where it comes from….
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Matt Bosack is a TV writer and producer with credits on NCIS: Hawai’i (CBS) – co-creator; Seal Team (CBS/Paramount) – supervising producer; Warrior Nun (Netflix); The Player (NBC/Sony) and more. Bosack worked at ICT from 2006 – 2016 on many projects, including the battalion-level command trainer UrbanSim.