[Vision2020] Two "Must See" Telecasts About the Iraqi War

[Tom Hansen]

Greetings Visionaires -

There are two telecasts being shown in the near future that I consider MUST
SEE telecasts concerning the Iraqi War.

Thursday (May 25, 2006), 9:00 PM (A&E, Adelphia Channel 33):  "Combat
Diaries: The Marines of Lima Company"

Sunday (May 21, 2006) and throughout June (HBO): "Baghdad ER"

Both shows are unedited and what I would consider to be "wake up calls" for
those who blindly support George Bush's "Stay the Course" tactics.

Articles from the Army Times concerning each of these is posted below.

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A&E to air raw, moving portrait of 'Lucky' Marines

By Rob Colenso Jr.
Times staff writer

You probably remember the stories of "Lucky Lima."

The company from 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines, a Reserve outfit out of
Columbus, Ohio, deployed to Iraq in March 2005 with 184 Marines, the last of
nine Marine Corps Reserve infantry battalions to be called up for war. 

By the end of its seven-month tour, about one in three leathernecks with the
company had been killed or wounded. 

In all, 59 Purple Hearts were awarded to Lima Marines, 23 of them
posthumously. The company's collective losses galvanized the Columbus
community of Brook Park - and the nation as a whole.

You may have heard about the company's role in Operation Spear in Karabilah,
a city near the Syrian border that had become a base of operations for
foreign fighters.

And you probably saw the smoking aftermath of the amphibious assault vehicle
that hit a roadside explosive so massive that the 23-ton vehicle flipped
onto its back and all 11 Lima Company leathernecks inside were killed.

It's easy to remember the painful things - the images from the nightly news
don't really go away. But you've never seen them through the eyes of the
Marines who fought there.

Until now.

A new A&E Network documentary set to air May 25, "Combat Diary: The Marines
of Lima Company," gives viewers a window into their world, largely through
video and photos shot by the Marines themselves. As Sgt. Steve Hicks,
platoon sergeant for Lima's 3rd Platoon, puts it at the start of the
documentary: "Everybody had a camera."

And the Marines photographed everything. From pizza-eating contests in their
barracks at Iraq's Haditha Dam to the aftermath of the Aug. 3 explosion that
flipped the assault vehicle, the Marines saw - and filmed - it all. 

"The Marines of Lima Company never intended this footage to be made public,"
said Michael Epstein, who directed and produced the film for Viewfinder
Productions. "It's vastly different than footage you see from embedded
reporters - or even footage shot with the intent of later being folded into
a film. This is one company's unfiltered experience of war."

Epstein's spare, unadorned production allows the Marines to tell their own
tales of success, frustration and loss. Follow-up interviews after the
battalion's return from Iraq and interviews with the parents and spouses of
Marines killed in combat help bring richness and depth to the combat
footage.

In one scene, a camera follows Stephanie Derga to a bar in the Columbus
area. Her son, Cpl. Dustin Derga, 24, was killed May 8, 2005, shot in the
back with an armor-piercing round during Operation Matador on the Iraq-Syria
border. The bar is a popular hangout for Lima Company's Marines - they spend
more time with one another than they do with civilians now that they're back
from war - and Derga prefers to spend time with them as well. 

At the start of the documentary, Lance Cpl. Trevor Smith tells the viewer,
"I don't really talk to people about what happened."

But throughout, it becomes clear that the Marines want to tell their story,
to be remembered as more than "the company that lost so many Marines." They
talk of the relationships they built with Iraqi soldiers, moving from early
skepticism to loose bonds of friendship in the crucible of combat. 

They cite the improved Iraqi turnout between the two elections that
bracketed their seven-month deployment, noting that the rise in
participation is thanks, at least in part, to their efforts during that long
summer.

"I just want people to remember them for what they did, not because they
died," Smith says as the documentary draws to its close.

"Combat Diary" doesn't explore the details of the battles Lima Company
fought to the same depth that it does the stories of the company's wounded
and fallen. But it does provide a stark, honest and gripping portrait of
idealism tempered by the pain of brothers lost in war.

"Combat Diary: The Marines of Lima Company" airs at 9 p.m. Eastern time May
25 on the A&E Network.

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'Know what to expect' from HBO movie, viewers warned

By Kelly Kennedy
Times staff writer

An HBO documentary about an Army hospital in Iraq is so graphic, some brass
concluded, that they warned soldiers to be careful watching it. Other Army
leaders invited to an advance screening stayed away.

Some soldiers and family members associated with "Baghdad ER," however, told
Army Times they found value in the war-zone reality that the documentary
portrays. One mother who watched her son die in the documentary said the
film allowed her to see the people who cared for him in his very last
moments.

The movie, which debuts Sunday, features 62 minutes of gore, anguish and
death as the soldiers of the 86th Combat Support Hospital out of Fort
Campbell, Ky., wade through the wounded of Baghdad in the spring and summer
of 2005. It will air on HBO throughout the month of June. 

"It's very gritty," Army spokesman Paul Boyce said. "It's very realistic. We
want to make sure folks know what to expect. We're not telling people,
'Don't watch.'"

Boyce, who viewed the May 17 screening of the documentary at the National
Museum of American History in Washington, D.C., said it also shows the
heroism of the medical personnel treating those wounded in the combat zone.

"It profiles their daily performances," Boyce said, "and their compassion is
absolutely inspirational."

Lt. Gen. Kevin Kiley said in a May 9 memo that the film "shows the ravages
and anguishes of war" and may cause some who have served in Iraq to
"experience some symptoms of post-traumatic stress, such as flashbacks or
nightmares."

 
Family members who watch it may also have emotional reactions such as
anxiety, said Kiley, who heads the Army Medical Command at Fort Sam Houston,
Texas.

Kiley asked that commanders advise their units of the film's release date
and that they be aware that soldiers may seek comfort or treatment after
viewing it. He also asked commanders to strongly consider extending the
hours of support personnel, such as chaplains and mental health counselors.

Col. Casper Jones, commander of the 86th, said he thought the film was a
well-done, accurate portrayal of what his soldiers did in Baghdad. For him,
the grueling scenes are only a millisecond of his memories. 

"What you see in this documentary is about 1/25th of the shock value of what
you actually see and visualize," he said. "I certainly didn't see anything
I'd forgotten."

The film shows soldiers helping each other, asking about teammates involved
in an attack, making jokes above their own disintegrated limbs, and leaning
on the hospital staff who saved their lives.

Jones watched it with his troops during an advance screening. 

They weren't shocked or thrown into an "emotional tailspin" after watching
the program, Jones said. And it may help them realize what they've
accomplished and better explain their mission to family members and friends.

"The American people should be very proud of the medical team that's right
there at the front lines to ensure the soldiers can get back to their
families," he said. "I certainly hope that when my mother, father and sister
see this they'll have an appreciation of what we did over there."

Sgt. Jeffrey Beltran of Fort Riley, Kan., said he remembered the day HBO
asked him if they could film him soon after a roadside bomb destroyed his
knee Memorial Day weekend 2005.

His face - and his wounds - flash across the screen as he asks a colonel if
he has any beer. Then again as medics tell him his men all survived after an
IED blew his Humvee in half. And again as the medical staff work to comfort
him as they rebuild his knee.

"It showed to every extent what the medical professional has done helping
the wounded soldiers," he said. "It's very emotional and traumatic to see
yourself on TV talking to doctors."

he said the film helped him because he got to see all that happened around
him that he wasn't aware of at the time. "I remembered two snapshots of what
I'd seen in a dream," he said. "I understand now fully the whole process."

The hardest part to watch, he said, was when a young Marine, Lance Cpl.
Robert Mininger, 21, died. 

Mininger's mother, Paula Zwillinger, watched the film Tuesday with the 86th.

"It's a pain a mother goes through - losing a child to war," she said.
"Seeing it, it brings peace knowing that he wasn't alone. He had another
Marine by his side. He was in good care."

When Mininger died last June, his mother did not know about the HBO
documentary. A director called her five months later.

"Five months down the road, I'm still very much in the grieving process,"
she said. "To hear that there's a video that could put me by my son's
bedside - as a parent, you can't walk away from that."

And HBO let her help with the editing process.

"I'm not ready to show 100 percent of the footage," she said. 

It was important to let the world see what the soldiers did for her son, she
said. "As a lay person, you can't understand," she said. "Two soldiers
holding hands on a stretcher and crying together.... There's nothing that
can compare to that."

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Seeya round town, Moscow.

t hansen-moore
Moscow, Idaho

"Patriotism is not a short and frenzied outburst of emotion but the tranquil
and steady dedication of a lifetime." 

--Adlai E. Stevenson, Jr.