By AMY TAXIN

The Orange County Register

Casey Wayland watches as one by one his fellow soldiers fail to hit the target at the shooting range. Some come close. But others in the California-based Army Reserve unit gearing up for Iraq are off the mark. "This is the first time I realized, crap, the guy next to me could be my end," Wayland says. "It just was a real scary thought." It is a scene from a documentary the Chapman film student made about his military service in Iraq. But the story he told - his own - is real. He filmed it all, even while carrying a gun, using a camera in a side pouch, and a lens attached like a peephole to his helmet.

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A fifth-generation Orange resident, Wayland didn't plan to be a soldier. He grew up with Navy stories from his uncle; Marines stories from his father, a fireman in the city.But his passion was film.From the time he was 10, Wayland set up his action figures, filmed one second, then hit the stop button while he moved them into a new position.

After school, Wayland tinkered with his father's clunky old video camera and recruited neighborhood kids to make movies. There was one rule: no knives or dangerous props without a "safety officer" - Wayland's father - present.

At Orange High, Wayland used film to illustrate class projects. Word of his movies reached the school's film teacher, who ran a special class for seniors only. Soon, a quiet freshman joined them.After graduating, he went to Chapman University's film school, hoping to save money by living at home.

He took his first semester of classes in fall 2001. But worries set in after a letter from the financial aid office listed his debts for the spring.

Wayland was eligible for scant government assistance, and he was determined to pay for college himself.He needed $12,000 a year.

One day in January, Wayland came home and found his mother, Kathy, working on a paper for her own college class. Papers were strewn across her bed as she struggled to finish on time."Mom, sit down for this," he said. The mother of four, who knew this was bad because she was already sitting, took a breath and looked up. The words that came next hit her like lead.

"I joined the Army."

SEEING THE WORLD

As a reservist, Wayland took time away from Chapman for basic training and then spent eight months at the Defense Information School in Maryland learning about broadcast equipment. Getting up before dawn for training followed by nine hours of class wasn't easy. "Chapman is a breeze," he says.

Back at home, he had training with the Reserve every month. He returned to college in the fall, but six weeks later he had to cut his classes short. He was being deployed to Iraq. The news hit his family hard. But Wayland knew that by going to war he would improve his prospects of getting financing for school.

It was his first trip abroad, a chance to see the world. As a film student, Wayland couldn't pass up the opportunity to share it with others.He started tinkering with his video camera to see if he could weave its components into his uniform. He put his batteries in his backpack and fastened the camera lens and microphone inside his helmet. He tacked the controls in a front pocket.

"I don't think they're going to let you do this," his dad said.Wayland spoke with the commander of his unit. He got approval & as long as the film didn't compromise the unit's mission, reveal classified information or make a profit.

"There were certain things he was not going to be able to shoot for security reasons," says Capt. Adam Hackel, the unit's second-in-command. "When he did that thing with the helmet camera, it was really ingenious. It worked out so it was non-intrusive to what we were doing."

FILMING IRAQ

Wayland's footage included soldiers lined up to get anthrax shots that ballooned their arms and picking up desert camouflage uniforms. On the shooting range, they lined up in the rain to take a marksman test. Even though many failed to hit the target, they went to war anyway.

The trip to Baghdad took 20 hours. Soldiers crammed into the back of an Air Force jet. Some read to pass the time; others curled up amid boxes and slept.Wayland was stationed in Baghdad next to the presidential palace. He set up broadcast equipment for the Army's first radio station for troops in Iraq, for news conferences and for teleconferences with Pentagon officials.

On Christmas 2003, soldiers in his unit savored candy from CARE packages before being shuttled to a bomb shelter to endure hours of mortar fire.Wayland spent time in Baghdad and on the treacherous road leading to the international airport. On one mission outside the city, Iraqi children circled him, begging for him to snap their photos.

Wayland filmed when he could, 60 hours in all, as long as it didn't interfere with his duties."The only way I'd have my camera out is if we were in an area that was non-hostile," he says. "If we were ever in a position where I was going to have to pick up my M-16, I used the helmet camera."

STILL A FRESHMAN

Wayland returned to Chapman last fall. He edited his footage with a classmate, Tucker Tillman, who helped translate the military talk. The film was entered in Chapman's annual Cecil Awards. It was called "365 Boots on Ground," for the year Wayland spent as a soldier in the Middle East.

At the awards ceremony, his parents listened to a speaker discuss Michael Moore's work. Their hearts sank, fearing talk of the filmmaker meant their military son was out of the running. Seconds later, they fumbled for the camera when Casey was named the winner, a rare honor for a freshman.

The film is a semifinalist for the Angelus Awards, an international student film festival in Hollywood in October. Now, Wayland, 23, is eager to return to school. With six semesters left, he hopes he won't get called back to Iraq so he can finish college. And keep making films.

He hopes his documentary will teach viewers about the transition reservists make from civilian to Army life. With news coverage focused on combat, he says, many reservists serve in Iraq unnoticed and blend back into their civilian lives unseen. "When people look at us, they expect every single soldier is engaging in combat all the time. They don't know what it's like," he says.