Sergeant MacKenzie was bayoneted to death at age 33, while defending one of his badly injured fellow soldiers during hand-to-hand trench warfare.
While working on the film We Were Soldiers (2002), director Randall Wallace received a CD of the album and was haunted by the emotion and spirit of reverence captured in "Sgt.
MacKenzie" with the backing of an 80-piece orchestra and the United States Military Academy Choir at the famous Abbey Road Studios in London.
The original pipe score was written and played by Seoras Wallace, when Joe MacKenzie read his poem to him and Tu-Bardh Wilson in a house in Govan many years ago.
A few years back my wife Christine died of cancer, and in my grief I looked at his picture to ask what gave him the strength to go on.
I believe the men and women like yourself who are prepared to stand their ground for their family - for their friends - and for their country; deserve to be remembered, respected and honoured.
MacKenzie" was first released on our Tried and True CD album in 2000, a copy of the song made its way to the hands of Hollywood director, Randall Wallace and actor Mel Gibson.
Child actor Atticus Shaffer was interested in the story of the actual soldier, so he dressed up as MacKenzie on Halloween.
Beside the 2002 movie We Were Soldiers, the original song was also played during a scene in the film End of Watch (2012), starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Peña.