Healing Combat Trauma

The Real Meaning of Memorial Day: Remembering the Sacrifice

For the real meaning of Memorial Day, remembering the sacrifices that have been made, there's a powerful essay written by a trauma surgeon in Iraq about the tragic death of one Marine he treated that might be worth your while to read.  Beware: it's completely gruesome, and spares no detail, though is done respectfully.  And it has an even doubly tragic ending (you'll have to read it to see what it is.) If you have been to war, you might not need to read this -- you're already plenty in touch with what carnage and sacrifice are all about.  If you haven't been, though, it might be a little more eye-opening about what those who serve go through and ultimately sacrifice.

The most impressive part of the story to me, besides the great care the trauma surgeon takes with every battlefield injury, is his love and respect for those he's working for -- and on, a love and respect shared by everyone involved in the course of his workday.  The sheer magnitude of what they go through, and its power to numb the human heart and psyche, is astronomical.  The fact that they fight through for it not to numb them is even more remarkable.  It's a complex human reaction, best expressed by the doctor himself, but it's also summed up centuries ago in the following quote, which we've used before on this blog:

"Anyone who looks with anguish on evils so great must acknowledge the tragedy of it all; and if anyone experiences them without anguish, his condition is even more tragic, since he remains serene by losing his humanity." -- Augustine of Hippo, quoted in One Bullet Away: The Making of a Marine Officer, by Nathaniel Fick.

If you want to read a gory but powerful reflection on the true cost of sacrifice, read "A War Surgeon's Perspective on Memorial Day," by John P. Pryor, M.D., quoted in full on the blog, The Kitchen Table. The reflection is linked here.  It's well worth reading, though completely sobering and sad.

Editor's note: For more material along the same lines, there's an OEF/OIF memoir by another doctor who served, "On Call in Hell: A Doctor's Iraq War Story," by Cdr. Richard Jadick, which is linked here.

Speaking of Catharsis: One Magnificent Quote

Catharsis:

The word comes from Greek katharsis, from kathairein, to purge, from katharos, pure. 

Among other definitions, "catharsis" means: "a purifying or figurative cleansing of the emotions, especially pity and fear..."; "a release of emotional tension, as after an overwhelming experience, that restores or refreshes the spirit;" and "a technique used to relieve tension and anxiety by bringing repressed feelings and fears to consciousness; also, "The therapeutic result of this process."

Catharsis is the unspoken theme, hope and dream for veterans on this blog, but periodically we make it more explicit, as we did here, in a blog entry about art therapy's surprisingly potential for purging combat trauma and PTSD in veterans.

At virtually the same moment I was posting this, friend and apparent psychic twin on all things veteran, Chris Lombardi, was posting this remarkable quote on her blog.  Lombardi is writing a book for the University of California Press on soldiers and dissent (watch for it), and here she is quoting Walter Kirn in the New York Times, reviewing The March, which Kirn called "E.L. Doctorow's heart-squeezing fictional account of Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman's fiery, rapacious last campaign through the cities and countryside of the Confederate South". 

The quote that Lombardi pulls from Kirn offers a stunning perspective on how great catharsis can really be, when veterans (and others) decide that "the only way out [of their suffering] is through":

The rampant destructiveness of Sherman’s march is, of course, the stuff of high school textbooks, but what isn’t so obvious is the way that destruction transfigures and transforms, pulverizing established human communities and forcing the victims to recombine in new ones. Inside the churning belly of Doctorow’s beast, individuals shed their old identities, ally themselves with former foes, develop unexpected romantic bonds and even seem to alter racially. Yes, war is hell, and “The March” affirms this truth, but it also says something that most war novels leave out: hell is not the end of the world. Indeed, it’s by learning to live in hell, and through it, that people renew the world. They have no choice.

From the blog post, "What We Write About When We Write About War,' by Chris Lombardi, at her blog, Incredible Panic Rules, linked here.

When the Marine Corps Misses the Bigger Picture -- Zoriah, Eric Acevedo, and Censorship

It's discouraging to even have to post about this, but there it is:

In a fight between the Marine Corps and freedom of the press, the Marine Corps seems like it wants the win.  According to Google Playfights (see gimmicky graphic illustrating this post) it already has.  (Learn more about Google Playfights elsewhere: it's not central to this post.)

Following the recently-embedded independent photojournalist Zoriah's travails on his blog, it seems that he's just now been kicked out of Iraq, and risks being completely blacklisted as a war photographer, because of at least some higher-up Marine Corps officers' displeasure with images he posted.  Images that centrally could help America to really get a better grip on the true cost of war for its participants.  If you believe the experts -- and the poets --no one comes back from war unchanged.  Whether it's what you've done/seen/participated in or not been able to do/see/participate in, it exacts a tremendous psychic cost.  That doesn't mean we should stop fighting in wars -- just that we should be more aware of the actual costs to those who do.  For every combatant killed, so many more are injured, and will come home with injuries that in many cases will profoundly transform their lives, and that of their families, for decades to come.  It's a shame the Marine Corps doesn't seem to really want the rest of us wrap our brains around this concept more fully.  It would help make us better empathizers with the true cost of war to its participants.

I had my own experience with Marine Corps censorship, earlier, on this site.  In an attempt to humanize the story of an apparent PTSD sufferer who'd killed his girlfriend, I dug through the Marine Corps (public) archives on their website, and found a little backstory about the Marine, Eric Acevedo, who'd been accused of the crime.  In and amongst the materials were some very key items: a photo that showed the human side of his grief and pain; and some material -- if you knew where to look -- that explained just what he'd been exposed to, in terms of combat trauma, while he was on the deployment that apparently harmed him the most.  It was a tragic tale, but it was also public knowledge -- at least, information accessible by the public, that could be pieced together by someone like a journalist who knows how to dig and highlight the important parts of the story.  I posted what I found, in an entry linked here -- and within three days, the Marine Corps had taken pains to scrub ALL identifying information about this poor guy, Acevedo, from their site.  The photo was gone, the article about the memorial service he attended, for the multiple guys KIA from his battalion on the tour in question -- all gone.  I learned about this new development when a reporter from the Dallas Morning News contacted me and said that all my links were down (I'd included them in the original piece, so anyone could follow and see what my sources had been).  Together, we backtracked through the Marine Corps archives, and found NOTHING -- the site had been scrubbed clean of multiple mentions of the accused -- and has stayed that way ever since.

Nobody likes bad publicity, of course, including the Marine Corps -- but really, there's so much more at stake than that.  When it comes to combat trauma and PTSD, the focus of this site -- it's important as a society that we see, learn, and otherwise come to understand what veterans go through -- or we won't have the compassion that we need to, and we won't pull for them to get the services they deserve, otherwise.  We also need to see more clearly the link between instances of combat trauma, and ultimately developing PTSD.   Not so that "no one else will join the military" -- not at all.  So that those who do can get the help they need, and those in charge can allocate their resources accordingly.

It's my firm conviction that combat veterans don't "give" PTSD to themselves.  They "get" it from what they've experienced.  And this is a true cost of war, for the Marine Corps and others to "count" in advance, so that the right opportunities for treatment and ideally recovery can be provided.  We can see from the late SSgt. Travis Twiggs' battle with PTSD -- or many others like him -- just how powerful, thorough, and deadly an opponent it really is.  What we're not seeing, unfortunately, from the Marine Corps -- in these two instances -- is a reasonable, big picture view on how the horrors of war are not something the American public needs to shy away from, but embrace.  And where the two may be linked up, as in the Eric Acevedo story, it's crucial that the Marine Corps not distance itself from its warriors, even when they're dented with significant wounds, visible and invisible. Sanitizing war?  Why bother... Actually supporting the troops who go? Oh, definitely.  If knowledge is power -- we need more, not less - in order to do so, more effectively.

In the Zoriah situation, it sounds like someone may have snapped under the strain and started a bad ball rolling with that -- created a polarized position that no one could retreat from, gracefully.  If that's the case, that's a real shame.  There's a much bigger picture here, and finding a workable compromise would be greatly important.  I remember reading one Marine officer's published dispatches from Iraq, which got progressively darker and unpleasantly snappier as his tour went on, to the point that it sounded like another person writing them.  I commented about this to someone who knew that Marine, who told me a little side story that explained a lot.  Things had been going well until that Marine's superior, to whom he was very close, was seriously injured and almost died, taking part in a humanitarian mission with the Iraqi government.  At that point, the junior officer hit a wall, got bitter, and got very angry with the Iraqis who could have done that, while the Americans were just trying to help.  What I had been picking up in the Marine officer's writing reflected the personal struggles he was genuinely going through -- struggles which are highly understandable to anyone interested in human nature.  My guess is here, someone who felt very stressed and angry because of Marines he cared about being injured and dying, snapped down on the whole situation instead of privately (or publicly) processing his natural grief -- and the ultimate impact might be, if this continues to go wrong, to keep the rest of us from being able to experience war a little bit more, even vicariously - in order that we better understand, and grieve, with those who suffer.  I hope the Marine Corps finds a way to resolve this situation that respects the points of view of all sides involved, including the American public, which does have a need to know.  The same goes for the Eric Acevedo situation, and scrubbing the information from their archives.

The American public pays the bill for these wars: we have a right to know what they're like for those fighting them.  And those who fight them pay the ultimate price: and we respect their efforts and the character it takes to be warriors, very much.

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I shared a very bleak, grim quote with a Marine Corps Vietnam vet the other day, from an Italian in the Middle Ages who said, "Life is a voyage on uncharted waters, ending in shipwreck.  There are no survivors."  The former Marine, still struggling all these years later with PTSD, said the quote was almost right -- but would be better if we switched out "life" with "combat" or, "war."  Then, he said, it would be more accurate, because, quoting him, there are no true "survivors, only shipwrecked lives..."

Editor's Note: You can read about Zoriah's developing situation on his blog, linked here.  You can also read previous entries on this blog where we've mentioned him, here and here.  You can read about the Travis Twiggs story here, and in many other entries on this blog; and the Eric Acevedo story here; both as I've blogged about them. 

And while you're at it, considering asking the Marine Corps to put the Eric Acevedo material (and anyone else's they've removed, in similar circumstances) back on their publicly-searchable archives, as it was before.  I'm sure his defense lawyer would appreciate it, because any good defense of this client is going to need to advance theories that involve his extenuating circumstances (combat) and things that speak to his state of his mind (PTSD), both of which it's hard to picture were NOT service-related.  Acevedo's crime?  A  truly terrible one.  The combat trauma he experienced, and the PTSD he likely developed?  Also terrible.  Without war coverage like Zoriah's "tragic and amazing" photography, also a big picture we're likely to miss.

What the VA Needs Is "The Odwalla Effect"

[If this blog were a newspaper, which it isn't, this particular blog post would be an editorial -- found in the opinion section, separate from the rest of the paper.  The editorial section is where the editor "puts together" what the news means to him or her, and sets out a point of view, about what we should do or feel, think or believe about something, based on what else has been in the news lately, that they've been keeping people up to speed on.  It's the opinion section, essentially -- but from the editorial management's point of view.]

Here's ours:

Kathie Costos has a great series of posts over at her blog, linked here, but there's one in particular we'd like to talk about - and we'll leave you the link to it in a minute, so you can read it for yourself.  First, the discussion.  Kathie is conducting a question and answer session with Paul Sullivan, head of Veterans for Common Sense, clearing up "rumors" about the veterans' lawsuit against the VA.  Sullivan's answers are clear and to the point, and contain some fairly galvanizing statements, pro or con.

[I should insert the caveat here, in an effort to be balanced, that I DON'T believe the VA is "all bad," nor do I imagine Costos or Sullivan does.  Every once in a while you DO read about people who are extremely thankful and grateful for the care they're received through the VA - I read an item the other day where a veteran was reminding us that they have one of the best healthcare systems in the world.  True.  But that also brings up a question of which metric you're using, since while they are succeeding in some areas, they are clearly failing in others (and those are the areas which are making the news, frustrating veterans and families, and where they're being sued.)  Highly competent, concerned and caring individuals DO work for the VA -- many of the leading lights of care in the PTSD segment in particular have come from, or worked with, or still do work with, the VA.  People who are tremendously significant in the history of caring for veterans in an extremely high quality, enlightened, empathic way -- so people like that DO work for the VA, and always have.  Look through the "Experts" section on this blog, and see how many people have an affiliation with the VA, past or present: Ray Scurfield, Shad Meshad, Jonathan Shay, as well as others, all come to mind. (For the record, these people were probably "born" (wonderful) not "made" (wonderful) by their association with the VA as caregivers, but still -- they worked there and in some cases, still do.  And God knows, the VA heavily reads this website -- even at odd hours -- including very late at night, on weekends, on national holidays -- times when the rest of America is out grilling a hotdog with their family, throwing a ball in a park, or just snoozing the night away -- so clearly there are some very dedicated individuals there, trying to learn all they can in order to deliver better care to those who are suffering.  (Though they may also be reading to keep up with public opinion, to see which way the wind blows...)

I do sometimes wonder when I see what the VA is searching for, on this site, because it either seems kinda elementary (like they should know about it already), or a little "weak" in the efficacy of treatment department (like things that are waaaaaaaaaaay down the totem pole or triage pile of things to actually try with a demographic of patients who are suffering greatly). To give you an idea of what I'm talking about, frequent searches -- and the topics change regularly -- by the VA include such things as "spirituality for PTSD," "does recreation help?" and things like that, where, really, yes, even if they do -- they're only adjuncts and pretty far down the list at that, compared to more likely things that seem worth trying or are known to have some benefit.  But maybe I should just be patient, and it's more a case of "if you build it, they will come."  Maybe there's a huge lag time afoot, where if the information is laid out there, eventually the searches will catch up -- on the VA's part, that is.]

(Huge digression -- but the point is, the VA's not all bad, and that's NOT the point of suggesting they change, which it certainly seems like they should.)

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Deep in the Q&A between Costos and Sullivan is this exchange, with the comment of importance highlighted:

Do you know about the Freedom of Information request to the VA by CREW and VoteVets?(Which we blogged about earlier here, by the way.)

Yes. It is too bad that VA still plays games with FOIA. VA should be forced to turn over the information. Embarrassing information is never a reason to deny a FOIA, as VA frequently does.

Alrighty now.  That was the warmup (the foregoing).  Here's the pitch:

If the VA wants to control the flow of embarrassing information about it -- such as the Katz and Perez emails have provided us with -- there's one extremely simple way to do it.  It's NOT hiring a PR firm that specializes in crisis management and controlling the spin.  That's morally and ethically disgusting -- when contrasted with the concept of just changing -- and, it's ridiculously expensive -- a true waste of money that could be better spent on taking care of veterans and their families, with the needs the VA already knows about. And by promoting good works, like those of combat veteran Jay White, at the VA Center in Hartford, Connecticut, which we blogged about here.  Those ALSO make the news and contribute to public opinion, though everyone knows, and it's unfortunate that it's true, bad news travels first.  (And bad news here is definitely the Katz and the Perez emails, and the lack of putting patients first they describe, not to mention the rash of veterans suicides, etc.) Denying patients adequate care?  There's just no way to put a positive enough spin on that.  And the extent of the media coverage has been such, yup, we pretty much all know about it by now, if we even remotely care to.  Game over.  What needs to happen next is what happened with the Odwalla juice company -- what the VA desperately needs is the Odwalla effect.

Years ago, Odwalla was a new company with a great product: fresh juice, delivered nationally.  I knew someone whose three college friends had started it, and because of that, I guess I paid attention to what it was, and when I had the chance, tried the juice.  It was great, and for a while, everybody I saw who wasn't carrying some bottled water, seemed to be carrying a container of their juice.  They had, and still have, a number of blended juices, as well as the straight-up orange and apple.  And they had a novel, and in hindsight quite unwise, approach.  Their juice was unpasteurized, which they felt was needed to keep the juice as fresh-tasting and delicious as possible, but which also carried some known health risks, because pasteurization kills bacteria.  Children (particularly babies) and the elderly, as well as a few other groups (those recovering from illness and surgery, etc.) have weaker immunities -- in other words, are more susceptible to bacteria.  And I don't remember that Odwalla plastered their juice labels with big warnings about: "Warning! Our lack of pasteurization makes this juice likely unsafe for children and the elderly!".  They probably just made their juice, concentrated on getting it to market, and hoped people toasted each other with its deliciousness.  But over time, the inevitable happened: a few people who tasted their fresh, delicious (and unpasteurized) juices got sick - and, horribly - died.  And some of the affected were children, which the American public finds of course especially heartbreaking, and worthy of media attention.

In an instant, it seemed -- everyone turned on Odwalla, the juice and the company.  It went from being a media darling, to an object of abhorrence and fear.  How could they have let their juice kill people -- young children, even?  Horrifying...  Based on the immediate and complete backlash in the press and public opinion, I easily imagined Odwalla going under, and my friend's three college friends being put of work, and skulking away in public disgrace.

What happened next was amazing, though: and it shows you the power of good, and of doing the right thing.  (There's a conflicting story on the Web, but if you read the date on it, it's from 1999, which is ridiculously old news -- before the Odwalla success story of managing its PR happened, and before the company was later sold to Coca Cola - another evidence of its success. Plus, the guy who wrote it is by no means is a PR specialist, nor does he even seem to understand how PR works. I did work in PR, though I'm no expert on crisis management - I do get how it works.)  Odwalla didn't go bankrupt, didn't go out of business, didn't leave the marketplace in shame and disgrace.  What DID they do?  Simple as could be, and oh so powerful:

They accepted responsibility.  They apologized and paid the families' bills.  And they changed their process, so more people wouldn't be hurt by it.  They were wrong; they admitted it; they did what it took to make it right; and they changed.

In other words -- EXACTLY what the VA needs to do.

By now, we all know what the problems are, if we've cared at all to listen and learn.  They're kinda obvious.  And no amount of re-spinning the truth is going to make the problem go away.  All the media attention and lawsuit has done is show us the gaps in the system, the problems with care.  And because most caring, compassionate, fair-minded Americans care MORE about their veterans - we "get" the price they've paid -- than we do about hearing excuses and spin -- there's only one real solution here.  Admit the problem(s), apologize to those you've affected (veterans, their families, and the rest of us, who while less directly involved, are nevertheless put off by what we've learned), and fix the process.  Let tomorrow be vastly different from today, because you're starting to work -- really work -- on the problem, now.  The problem that we -- you, me, veterans, their families, the media, Veterans for Common Sense, the IAVA, the Disability Rights Project, Paul Sullivan, Kathie Costos -- all know exists.

Lack of pasteurization, denying veterans care -- and, if you'll allow me -- O.J. Simpson have all have been linked to killing people.  But in a contest between two kinds of OJ -- Odwalla and Simpson -- please, VA, we beg of you: show yourselves to be more like Odwalla, and less like Simpson. Fess up, come clean, do what's right by veterans and their families, make it right.  Now more than ever, what the VA seriously needs to re-create good public opinion is not denial, spin and blocking legitimate FOIA requests, in case something embarrassing gets revealed -- it's a simple thing called "the Odwalla Effect."  Also known as, doing the right thing, for the right reason, makes public opinion bounce right back.

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Editor's note: Kathie Costos' Q&A with Paul Sullivan of Veterans for Common Sense about the veterans' lawsuit is linked here. Kathie Costos' blog, "Wounded Times," is linked here. Veterans for Common Sense is linked here.

Happy Birthday - We're Two!

Happy Birthday to us  - we're two years old!  This blog was started back in February, 2006, with this post, and almost 300 posts later, we're still here, alive 'n kickin'.  That's almost a post every other day.  We've managed to cover a lot of topics, even win a nice award in the process, and be read by people all over the world, including frequent visitors from colleges and universities, the Dept. of Veterans Affairs, the DOD, the Pentagon, the U.S. House of Representatives, the Senate, various major media outlets, including ABC, CBS and NBC, even lately some movie studios.  (Although they're probably looking for references to Rudy Reyes...)  In fact, our readership has increased more than tenfold, just in the last year alone.  And in the first two months of this year, we're on a pace to multiply that by five or six times more.  Other accomplishments we're proud of?  We've built a cool library of veteran-oriented reading material, focused on combat trauma and PTSD, along with first person narratives of war, which are important to read if you want to know what veterans have experienced.  It can't just be head knowledge: it has to be heart knowledge, too.  We've created a group on Facebook for those interested in this topic, as well as a page where you can show that you're a "fan" of this website.  And become friends with some wonderful other bloggers who also cover this territory in able fashion, in particular Ilona Meagher and Kathie Costos. 

In the upcoming months, we want to get back to exploring more of our core purpose of this blog, which is to bring attention to the key medical, psychological and legal remedies for combat trauma, as well as focus on who some of the experts are.  The goal of having this blog in the first place?  That those who suffer from combat trauma will end up being able to find catharsis.  The type of result that involves dealing with it, addressing it, and ultimately, moving through it and beyond it.  And if the injured veteran is in the middle of the concentric circles, the ripples on a pond, that those in the outer rings, from family members, to ultimately, decisionmakers, would understand what combat trauma is -- how to prevent, how to work with it, how to heal it.  And that would be "Healing Combat Trauma," indeed.

USA Today Blogs from "An Emotional" Congressional Hearing on Veterans Suicides

The Congressional hearings on suicide prevention among veterans are going on right now in Washington, DC.  USA Today is blogging about what they're calling "an emotional hearing."  Oh, yeah.  Consider the topic!  And the effect that it has on veterans and their families, not to mention, caregivers.  Here's the link.  The coverage is short and to the point, and very, very current.

The Sacred Brotherhood of Veterans

This is a post I've been meaning to write for a while - because the incident that spurs it, while still a few weeks old, didn't get nearly the coverage that it could have, so it's still going to count as "news."

It seems clear that if returning combat veterans end up getting better treatment (and hmmmn, we're still waiting for that) these days, from the VA and from society at large, it will in large part be because of what earlier veterans -- in particular, Vietnam veterans -- experienced.  The Vietnam vets' unfortunately "bad" experience will somehow work to create a noticeably "better" experience for current combat veterans.  At least, that's the hope.  And not just ours, but many Vietnam veterans as well, who frankly have suffered enough, and if there's any benefit to their suffering whatsoever, want to see that it means the next generation might suffer a little bit less, in trying to uncoil themselves from combat and readjust to civilian life.  When I think of this phenomenon, I really do picture a bridge, or chain of arms -- from one part of the sacred brotherhood of combat vets to another -- reaching out, to make sure that they make their way across what can be very troubled waters.  Of course now the "sacred brotherhood" also includes women veterans as well, but rather than get lost in some murky, cumbersome language, let's just call it the brotherhood and realize it includes women vets as well.  Whoever's been through combat, innately understands what it took to live that experience, and instinctively can help others going through that, and ideally help them come to terms with their loss.

The point of bringing this up -- the focal point of this post -- is to introduce one great example of a  Vietnam veteran who, despite his rank, really didn't "forget" what it was like to go through combat, no matter how many years ago.  When General Peter Pace stepped down in early October as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, he apparently went straight from his good-bye ceremony to the Vietnam Wall.  And at the Vietnam Wall, to the shock and surprise of many onlookers, who came across these tokens over the next few weeks, he left three index cards, laid against the wall.  With his four stars rank pinned to each of them, and a handwritten note to each of the three buddies he'd lost, in the Vietnam War.  The notes each said something like, "These are yours, not mine! With love and respect, your platoon leader, Peter Pace"

Here's a couple of photos of General Pace's mementos, close-up and in place; and a link to a video at CNN, describing what happened.  Props to blogger Old Sarge for pointing this out, and giving us permission to republish the photos.  For a link to the Wikipedia entry on General Peter Pace, click here.

Blogged Reports from Brown Conference

For those of you who like me are crying salty tears about missing what sounds like it was a stupendous conference at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island over the weekend, here are a couple of first-person reports from the same blogger about what the conference was like to attend. It really sounds fantastic.  I still wish I'd been able to go.  (Sigh.)  (The conference was on first person narratives coming back from the war in Afghanistan and Iraq, featuring many of the authors who wrote them, as well as interested others.)

First person report about the events of the first day; first person report about the events of the second day.  (Referencing those blog posts here does not imply an endorsement of the rest of the blog's contents -- I'm particularly interested in, as I hope you would be, the impressions from going to that conference itself.)

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If you've never seen "The War Tapes," by Deborah Scranton, one of the featured speakers at the conference, now might be a good time to try to find it on DVD.  Scranton is a filmmaker who put video cameras in the hands of various New Hampshire National Guard members, as the war in Iraq was beginning, and asked them to record what they saw, with the permission of their superiors.  What came back was some interesting footage, which she put together into a documentary that covers how three "regular guys" go to Iraq and get changed by the experience.  I saw the film at one of its first screenings on Cape Cod last year, met one of the featured participants, Sgt. Steve Pink, and really was impressed.  Apparently Scranton was a live wire at the conference, and one of it's most interesting participants.  (Here's a link to Scranton's blog, which includes a link to buying the DVD.) (The movie has since gone on to win a number of awards, including "Best Documentary," Tribeca Film Festival, and "Best International Documentary," BritDoc Festival.)

Front Line, First Person - Iraq War Stories

In the category called, things that make me wish I were in New England this weekend, this has to be at the top of the list.  Check out the topic, the length of the program (two days!!!) and, last but not least, the all-star cast who'll be participating.

The Watson Institute for International Studies, a part of ivy league Brown University in Rhode Island, is sponsoring a two day upcoming seminar on "Front LIne, First Person: Iraq War Stories" from those who served.  Click here for the link.  Cosponsored by Brown University's Nonfiction Writing Program and The Rhode Island Council for the Humanities.  The conference will be held at the the Watson Institute for International Studies, Brown University, located at 111 Thayer Street, Providence, RI 02912.  A live web stream of this event will be available, and archived video will be available shortly after the event.  (A later blog entry of ours references some blogger first person reports about the conference itself.  Click here for that link.)

Here's what the conference brochure has to say:

Over the past four years, the conflict in Iraq and the “war on terror” have divided public opinion in the United States. They have also created a less obvious divide – between the general public and the individuals, families, and communities touched directly by the experience of war. In this climate, voices representing the direct experience of war are often stifled or misheard or hijacked by those who seek to polarize the debate over the war.

Front Line, First Person: Iraq War Stories is a two-day conference that aims to create bridges for conversation across these new fault-lines and to understand better the capacities of different forms of storytelling to reach across boundaries and build connections at the human level.

Featured speakers include Colby Buzzell, the blogger and best-selling author of "My War: Killing Time in Iraq"; Matthew Burden (aka Blackfive), a leading military blogger and author of "The Blog of War: Frontline Dispatches from Soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan"; former US Senator Lincoln Chafee ’75; Deborah Scranton ’84, the award-winning director of the documentary “The War Tapes”; and Newsweek Senior International Photo Editor Jamie Wellford ’84.

Friday, October 19

2:00pm	The Ground Truth from Iraq to the Beltway and Back
	Colby Buzzell (blogger, author) “My War: Killing Time in Iraq” Iraq vet Senator Lincoln Chaffee (Independent, Rhode Island) Matthew Burden, aka, Blackfive (veteran, blogger, author) "The Blog of War: Frontline Dispatches from Soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan;" Erick Rodriguez, Iraq vet & current Brown student Moderated by: Deborah Scranton (filmmaker)

4:15pm	What Stories Do and Don’t Get Told and Why
	Podcast with SFC Nunn, author “Northern Disclosure” & soldier currently serving in Iraq, Iraq veteran Deborah Scranton (filmmaker) “The War Tapes” Col. David Lapan, USMC, Deputy Director, HQMC Public Affairs, Iraq vet Matthew O'Neill (filmmaker) HBO's "Alive Day Memories: Home From Iraq,” "Baghdad ER." Jason Christopher Hartley (blogger, author) "Just Another Soldier" Moderated by: Keith Brown

Saturday, October 20

9:00am

Reporters and Rapport

Charles Monroe-Kane (producer, NPR) To The Best of Our Knowledge Tara McKelvey (journalist, author) “Monstering: Inside America’s Policy of Secret Interrogations and Torture in the Terror War” Brian Palmer (embedded photographer, journalist, filmmaker) Trish Wood (journalist, author)”What Was Asked of Us: An Oral History of the Iraq War by the Soldiers Who Fought It” Moderated by: James Der Derian

11:30am

Amplifying Voices and Activism part I

Prof. Matthew Gutmann, Brown University "Breaking Ranks: An Oral History Project on Iraq War Veteran Dissent" Erin Solaro, author "Women in the Line of Fire: What You Should Know About Women in the Military" Paul Rieckhoff (soldier, author, activist) Founder, Iraq & Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA) & author "Chasing Ghosts", Iraq Vet Col. (Ret.) Greg Gardner, served with the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq as Chief of Staff for the Senior Advisor, Ministry of National Security and Defense, Iraq vet, military analyst for FOX News. Moderated by: Catherine Lutz

2:30pm	Amplifying Voices and Activism part II
	Prof. James William Gibson (California State University, Long Beach) "The Perfect War: Technowar in Vietnam “ Mitty Mirrer (filmmaker) Andrew Woods, Lecturer at Harvard Law School & founder “Soldier's Stories” project SSG Christopher Loverro (soldier, filmmaker) “Hidden Casualties”, Iraq Vet Moderated by: Elizabeth Taylor

5:15pm	Citizen/Soldier Roundtable Dialogue
	Facilitated by Lorelei Kelly, a national security specialist working to educate elected leaders and the public about the national security challenges revealed by 9/11. Her central focus in 2008 will include civil-military dialogue and educating the public about the role of the military in US democracy.

Conference Participants

Keith Brown is a sociocultural anthropologist. He is the co-founder of the Institute's Cultural Awareness and the Military Project, tracing the development of US military interest in culture since the 1990s. He also specializes in the study of twentieth-century Macedonia.

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Matthew Currier Burden ("Blackfive") enlisted in the military at age seventeen. He served first as an Army aircraft crew chief, then a paratrooper, before joining Special Operations. After receiving a commission as a cavalry officer and serving in Europe and Asia, he later became an intelligence officer for the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). He left the military in July 2001 as a major in the U.S. Army Reserve. He is now an IT executive in Chicago, and author of the popular military blog, Black Five. He has released a book, “The Blog of War: Front-Line Dispatches from Soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan”, which captures some of the best blog posts that have been written by active-duty service members in Iraq and Afghanistan and their families. As Mr. Burden says in the introduction, "military blogs were ideal for filling in the gaps that both the media and the military left out."

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Colby Buzzell is an Operation Iraqi Freedom Combat veteran, was an infantryman in the United States Army, served in the Stryker Brigade Combat Team out of Fort Lewis Washington. Served a year in Iraq, from 2003-04, where he started a web-log, and has published a book on his experiences entitled, My War: Killing Time in Iraq, combining narrative, blog entries, and emails that evolved from his blog over time. Referring to My War: Killing Time in Iraq, Kurt Vonnegut said “My War” is nothing less than the soul of an extremely interesting human being at war on our behalf in Iraq”. In 2004, Buzzell was profiled in Esquire magazine's "Best and Brightest" issue and has since contributed regularly. In 2007, Buzzell received the 2007 Lulu Blooker Prize for My War: Killing Time in Iraq.

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Lincoln Davenport Chafee ’75, a former United States senator, was a distinguished visiting fellow during the 2007 spring semester. Chafee was Rhode Island’s Republican senator from 1999 until 2006. Governor Lincoln Almond appointed Chafee to the US Senate in November 1999 to fill the unexpired Senate term of his late father, John Chafee. In November 2000, he was overwhelmingly elected to the seat. As senator, he served as a member of the Committee on Environment and Public Works, the Committee on Foreign Relations, and the Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs. During that time, he emerged as a leader on environmental issues and foreign policy, and promoted sensible economic and energy policies.

Before he joined the Senate, Chafee was the mayor of Warwick, RI, from 1992 until 1999. He entered politics in 1985 as a delegate to the Rhode Island Constitutional Convention, and a year later, he was elected to the first of two successive terms on the Warwick City Council.

While at the Institute, Chafee will work with the Global Security Program, lead an undergraduate student study group on US foreign policy, and convene groups of students, faculty, and policymakers to discuss issues in international relations. He will also undertake a variety of writing projects.

Chafee earned a degree in classics from Brown University in 1975. While at Brown, he was captain of the wrestling team and received the Francis M. Driscoll Award for leadership, scholarship, and athletics.

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James Der Derian is a Watson Institute research professor of international studies. In July 2004, he became the director of the Institute's Global Security Program. Der Derian also directs the Information Technology, War, and Peace Project in the Watson Institute's Global Security Program.

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COL (ret) Greg Gardner, retired from the United States Army as a Colonel with 30 years of commissioned service Mr. Gardner, who retired from the United States Army as a Colonel with 30 years of commissioned service, joined Oracle Corporation on March 15, 2004.  During his final military assignment, Mr. Gardner was responsible for Joint Command and Control in the Command, Control, Communications and Computers Directorate of the Joint Staff in The Pentagon.  In this role he developed the prototype of the Joint Protected Environment Network (JPEN) now in wide use by military bases and state and local governments across the country.

From April to November 2003, Mr. Gardner served with the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq as Chief of Staff for the Senior Advisor, Ministry of National Security and Defense. He then returned to Washington and coordinated personnel activities for the Authority before leaving government service in March 2004. Mr. Gardner’s military assignments included leadership positions in infantry, airborne, and ranger units and command of the 1st Battalion, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82d Airborne Division and the 3rd United States Infantry (The Old Guard).

His staff assignments included service as Operations Officer, 3rd Brigade 7th Infantry Division (Light) during Operation JUST CAUSE in Panama, G3, 25th Infantry Division (Light) in Hawaii, and Executive Officer to the Commander-in-Chief, Pacific Command. During his military service, Mr. Gardner received two awards of the Defense Superior Service Medal, three awards of the Legion of Merit, the Bronze Star Medal, Combat and Expert Infantryman’s Badges, Master Parachutist’s Badge, Ranger Tab, and Pathfinder Badge.

Mr. Gardner, a graduate of the United States Military Academy with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Electrical Engineering, also holds Master’s Degrees in Industrial Relations/Personnel Management from the Krannert School at Purdue University, Military Art and Science from the Army’s School of Advanced Military Studies, and Strategy and Policy from the Naval War College.

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James William Gibson, is a professor of sociology at California State University, Long Beach. He is the author of The Perfect War: Technowar in Vietnam (Atlantic Monthly Press, 1986), and analysis of how the U.S. military conceptualized and fought the Vietnam War as a capital-intensive production system in which the officer corps were managers, the enlisted men workers, and "enemy" bodies the product.  Gibson contrasts the abstract managerial knowledge of reported body counts, sorties flown, tons of bombs dropped, etc., found in official documents to what soldiers experienced on the ground and reported in their memoirs and novels. In Warrior Dreams: Paramilitary Culture in Post-Vietnam America (HIll and Wang, 1994), Gibson analyzed how the cultural and political crisis created by defeat in Vietnam led many men to dream of fighting new wars in which evil would be defeated and a pre-Vietnam order restored. In this fantasy culture, epitomized by Rambo films and Soldier of Fortune magazine, men imagined themselves as powerful warriors fighting outside military and police bureaucracies suffering from "restraints" ordered by liberal elites. Gibson is currently finishing a third book, Call of the Wild: The Cultural Enchantment of Nature, for Metropolitan Books/Henry Holt. 

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Prof Matthew Gutmann, is a cultural anthropologist at Brown University.  His publications include Fixing Men: Sex, Birth Control, and AIDS in Mexico (California, 2007); The Romance of Democracy: Compliant Defiance in Contemporary Mexico (California, 2002); The Meanings of Macho: Being a Man in Mexico City (10th Anniv. Ed., California, 2006).  With Catherine Lutz he is writing a book based on oral histories of dissident Iraq-era veterans, Breaking Ranks, and completing a project on sexual exploitation and abuse among UN Peacekeepers.  He is also a former GI organizer - way back when...

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Jason Christopher Hartley joined the Army National Guard at the age of 17 while still in high school in Utah.  He served with the 19th Special Forces Group in Utah until 2000, and now is part of the 69th Infantry based in Manhattan.

Jason spent most of 2004 in Dujail, a small town Shiite town in Iraq located approximately 45 miles north of Baghdad and in the heart of the Sunni triangle.  In addition to their combat tasks, his Infantry Company gathered scores of witness statements from residents who had survived the massacre perpetrated against them in 1982 by Saddam Hussein.  Their work was crucial in the prosecution and conviction of Saddam Hussein.  (Being opposed to the death penalty, he finds this a dubious distinction.)

For the duration of his deployment, he wrote extensively about his experiences and posted the stories along with photographs on his blog, justanothersoldier.com.  When he returned from Iraq, his writings were compiled and published by HarperCollins under the same title, Just Another Soldier.

Jason recently finished work as the military advisor for the film "Memorial Day", directed by off-broadway impresario Josh Fox and produced by Journeyman Films ("Maria Full of Grace", "Half-Nelson").

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Lorelei Kelly is a national security specialist working to educate elected leaders and the public about the national security challenges revealed by 9/11. She is the Policy Director for the Real Security Initiative of  the White House Project, www.thewhitehouseproject.org - an organization whose mission is to increase the influence of women's leadership in media, culture and politics. Her central focus in 2008 will include civil-military dialogue and educating the public about the role of the military in US democracy.

In addition to working with the underground movements of eastern Europe throughout 1989, Lorelei's professional background includes teaching at Stanford University's Center on Conflict and Negotiation, Senior Associate at the Henry L. Stimson Center and more than 8 years working on bipartisan national security education in Congress, where she continues to advise the Progressive Caucus. She has a Grinnell College BA and a Stanford MA. Lorelei has been trained as a professional mediator in both domestic and international conflict resolution settings. She completed the Air Command and Staff College of the US Air Force and also attended programs at the National Defense University and Army War College. Her latest publication is a guidebook for citizens entitled "Policy Matters: Educating Congress on Peace and Security" which is available online at www.stimson.org. She blogs regularly at  democracyarsenal.org  and Huffingtonpost.com.

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Colonel Dave Lapan currently serves as deputy director, Headquarters, U.S. Marine Corps Public Affairs, The Pentagon, Washington, DC.   

Col. Lapan enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1980 and transferred to the Marine Corps Reserve in 1987.  He was assigned to Marine Corps Air Station El Toro (Calif.), working in airfield operations, and was recalled to active duty during Operation Desert Storm.

In 1993, he resumed his undergraduate studies and graduated with honors from the Pennsylvania State University with a B.A. in Journalism and Humanities.

Returning to full-time active duty, he was assigned to Headquarters, U.S. Marine Corps, where he served as head of the Media and Plans branches, from 1997 - 2000.

From 2000 - 2003, Col. Lapan served as press officer in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs, The Pentagon, where, among other duties, he was Public Affairs liaison to U.S. Central Command during Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom.

From 2003 - 2006 he was assigned as Public Affairs Officer, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, NC.  In 2004, he served as PAO for Combined Joint Task Force – Haiti during Operation Secure Tomorrow and in 2005, served as PAO for Multi-National Force – West during Operation Iraqi Freedom.

He is a graduate of the Air War College and distinguished graduate of the Naval War College.  His personal decorations include the Bronze Star Medal, Defense Meritorious Service Medal, Meritorious Service Medal, Joint Service Commendation Medal (3), Joint Service Achievement Medal and the Navy/Marine Corps Achievement Medal.

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Christopher Loverro served as an Army Reservist Staff Sergeant in Mosul and Sumarra during the period of 2003-2004 while attached to the Army’s first Stryker Brigade Combat Team (3/2) out of Fort Lewis Washington. During his year in Iraq, he participated in a plethora of missions along the full spectrum of warfare from humanitarian assistance projects to direct action missions. Some of the
many missions his Combat Brigade conducted included building housing, a school, and providing humanitarian supplies for over 2,000 refugees (Operation Blanket) and providing school supplies for over a dozen dilapidate schools (Operation Pencil). Because of his civilian background as a police SWAT team operator, SSG Loverro helped with some of the training for the Iraqi police, and designed and implemented the Defensive Tactics Training program for the basic training battalion in Mosul where he helped train 600 new Iraqi Army recruits.

SSG Loverro has a Bachelor’s degree from UC Berkeley in Peace and Conflict Studies and has studied at the European Peace University’s campus in Austria, Spain, and England. He resides in northern California where he continues to work as a Police Officer and is currently working on the documentary film “Hidden Casualties” with Leave No Man Behind Productions.

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Catherine Lutz is a Watson Institute professor (research) and holds a joint appointment with the Department of Anthropology. Professor Lutz received her BA in sociology and anthropology from Swarthmore College and her PhD in social anthropology from Harvard University.  Her most recent books include Local Democracy under Siege: Activism, Public Interests, and Private Politics (New York University Press, 2007) and Homefront: A Military City and the American 20th Century (Beacon Press, 2001, winner of the Leeds Prize and the Victor Turner Prize). Others include Reading National Geographic (Chicago, 1993) with Jane Collins, and Unnatural Emotions: Everyday Sentiments on a Micronesian Atoll and their Challenge to Western Theory (Chicago, 1988). She is the immediate past president of the American Ethnological Society, the largest organization of cultural anthropologists in the U.S.

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Tara McKelvey is a senior editor at The American Prospect and the author of "Monstering: Inside America's Policy of Secret Interrogations and Torture in the Terror War" (Carroll & Graf; forthcoming in paperback, Basic Books, Spring 2008). She is also a contributing editor at Marie Claire Magazine and a frequent contributor to The New York Times Book Review. In addition, she is a research fellow at NYU School of Law's Center on Law and Security, a  2007 Ochberg Fellow (Dart  Center for Journalism & Trauma) and a 2008 Hoover Media Fellow.

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Mitty Mirrer, a documentarian, is currently gathering the voices of widows, children and other survivors of soldiers lost in Afghanistan and Iraq.  Ms. Mirrer is also a military survivor. Her father, a Marine, was killed in Vietnam. She is documenting the stories of the survivors of this war to create connections and understandings among the survivors themselves and with the general public; connections that were largely unavailable during the Vietnam Era. Currently a research fellow at the William Joiner Center for the study of war and social consequences at the University of Massachusetts in Boston, Mitty spent most of her career as a journalist in New Orleans and Philadelphia. Her most notable journalism awards have come from her work documenting families who have overcome adversity. In Oklahoma City, she recorded the journey of a New Orleans family who lost a loved one during the bombing. In Honduras, she documented the plight of an entire village after the devastation of Hurricane Mitch. Her work helped raise funds for children in a town near Tegucigalpa. In 1997, Ms. Mirrer earned a Regional Edward R. Murrow award for her documentary on her own family’s journey to Vietnam.

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Charles Monroe-Kane's radio background started in Chicago where he was the Executive Producer of LesBiGay Radio, a daily, drive-time call-in program dedicated to the politics and culture of the LGBT community. Charles is currently the producer of Wisconsin Public Radio's To The Best of Our Knowledge distributed by Public Radio International to some 150 National Public Radio stations around the country. He is also the Executive Producer of two other national programs: Calling All Pets and Zorba Paster On Your Health. Charles won the Peabody Award in 2006. Before radio Charles lived Europe where he worked on a variety of projects ranging from starting an Internet Café in Prague to running a record label in Amsterdam (he also did anti-nuke activism in Belgium and even ran a circus). Charles's hobbies include chasing his three year-old son around the house and snuggling his 5 month-old daughter.

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SFC Toby J. Nunn is a Canadian Citizen earning his citizenship for the United States of America. Born and raised in the mountains of northern British Columbia by a single father he moved to the United States to gain an education and obtain opportunities not available to him in Canada. Faced with several adversities in life he turn to the United States military to validate himself as a man and citizen of the nation he is proud to be a part of without taking away from the pride he holds dear about where he is from and family still resides. As a soldier in the US Army he has excelled, gaining rank as fast as legally possible but attaining responsibilities far beyond his pay grade from the start of his career. He has also been blessed with great leadership and wonderful duties. He is a charismatic leader known for his ethically based decisions.

SFC Toby Nunn is a well-decorated veteran of the War on Terror being deployed several times and places. He is also one of the fastest inducted members of the very elite Sergeant Audie Murphy Club being recognized as being in the top percentile of all Non Commissioned Officers in the Army. He has received a spectrum of awards ranging from an Army Commendation for Valor to the Military Outstanding Volunteer Service Medal.

SFC Toby Nunn is married to the lovely Reagan Hutter Nunn, and together they have two boys, Tristan and Jeffrey and are excitedly awaiting the birth in November of their baby girl Scarlet Taylor.

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Matthew O'Neill, filmmaker, HBO's "Alive Day Memories: Home From Iraq", "Baghdad ER" Matthew O'Neill has been working with DCTV in one way or another since he came to paint the walls in 1997 during a college holiday break!

He's traded in his paint can for a video camera and has been producing and directing at DCTV since 2001 working on documentaries for HBO, PBS, the Discovery Channels and others.

For the 2006 documentary he produced and directed with Jon Alpert for HBO - Baghdad ER, he won a Columbia DuPont Award and three Primetime Emmy Awards for Nonfiction Programs - including "Best Directing" and "Best Cinematography." Other programs he has produced and directed include Bolivia: Coca and the Congressman, To Have and Have Not: The Changing Face of China and Turkey's Tigers for the PBS series Wide Angle; Siberian Adoption Story for the Discovery Health Channel and Venezuela: Revolution in Progress for the Discovery Times Channel.

His work closer to home has been awarded five New York Emmy Awards including prizes for "Best Political Journalism" and "Best Societal Concerns Program." His 2002 PBS special about the New York Gubernatorial race, Speak Up New York! won a local Emmy and a Sigma Delta Chi award from the Society for Professional Journalists for Public Service Television Journalism.

Matthew grew up on Long Island and graduated from Yale University.

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Brian Palmer is an independent journalist and filmmaker based in Brooklyn, NY. He is in post-production on his first film, Full Disclosure: A Reporter’s Journey Toward Truth, a feature-length documentary based on his three trips to Iraq with the same US Marine combat unit. Palmer has written for Mother Jones, Newsday, The Huffington Post, Pixel Press, Newsweek International, The New York Times Magazine, US News & World Report, among others. He has worked as a freelance producer for MTV’s True Life documentary series and the Tribeca Film Festival, and produced an Iraq segment in for PBS’s Now with David Brancaccio.

From 2000 to 2002 Palmer was an on-air correspondent with CNN. He was a staff writer at Fortune from 1998 to 2000 and Beijing Bureau Chief for US News & World Report for the two years prior to that. Palmer began his career in journalism as a fact-checker at The Village Voice. He is on the faculty of the MFA Photography, Video, & Related Media Program at New York’s School of Visual Arts. He earned a BA in East Asian Studies from Brown University in 1986 and an MFA in Photography from The School of Visual Arts.

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Paul Rieckhoff is the Executive Director and Founder of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA).  A non-partisan non-profit founded in 2004 with tens of thousands of members in all 50 US states, IAVA is America’s first and largest Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans group.  Rieckhoff was a First Lieutenant and infantry rifle platoon leader in the Iraq war from 2003-2004. His unit was attached to 1st Brigade, 3ID and spent almost a year conducting combat operations in Iraq, centered in the Adamiyah section of Baghdad on the Eastern bank of the Tigris River. Third Platoon conducted over 1,000 dismounted and mounted combat patrols. 3/124th INF was the first reserve component unit in the Army to be awarded the Combat Infantryman Badge since the Korean War. All thirty-eight of the men in Rieckhoff's platoon returned home alive.

Honored by Esquire magazine as one of “America’s Best and Brightest” in 2004, he is now a nationally recognized authority on the war in Iraq and issues affecting troops, military families and veterans.  Rieckhoff has appeared on hundreds of radio and television programs. Recent appearances include: ABC’s documentary “To Iraq and Back: Bob Woodruff Reports,” The Charlie Rose Show, 60 Minutes, The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, Paula Zahn Now, This Week With George Stephanopoulos, Good Morning America, Anderson Cooper 360, Countdown with Keith Olbermann, Hardball with Chris Mathews, The NBC Nightly News, ABC World News Tonight, The CBS Evening News and The Colbert Report.

Rieckhoff’s first book, a critically acclaimed account of his experiences in Iraq and activism afterwards, titled Chasing Ghosts, was published by Penguin in May 2006 (paperback published May 1, 2007). A 1998 graduate of Amherst College, Rieckhoff now lives in New York City.

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Eric Rodriguez, is a senior at Brown University, concentrating in International Relations-Politics, Culture and Identity. He served as an Army Reservist Specialist in Balad and Ba'quba during 2003-2004, and was attached to the 308th Civil Affairs Brigade and the 4th Infantry Division, as a Water Treatment Specialist and Intelligent Analyst.  During the time he spent in Iraq, he participated in various humanitarian missions that  supported the building of schools and medical clinics, and the distribution of school of supplies collected by students from U.S. universities.  This stems from Eric's commitment to public service, which has been illustrated through his participation in Americorps, the University of California Public Policy and International Affairs Fellowship, and his recent receipt of the Derek Canfield Barker Prize for Public Service and Leadership at Brown University.

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Director Deborah Scranton made her feature film directorial debut with the award winning THE WAR TAPES, which premiered at the 2006 Tribeca Film Festival and won Best Documentary Feature. Hailed by the New York Times as "raw, honest and moving … one of the formally most radical films of 2006", it went on to win Best International Documentary at the 2006 BritDoc Festival and was released to critical acclaim in over 120 cities. Currently a visiting fellow at The Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown University working with the Global Media Project in the Global Security Program, Scranton is teaching an undergraduate seminar on documentary filmmaking and international affairs while also in production on "IRAQ - THE SURGE", a one hour film which will air in 2008 on WGBH Frontline that will tell the story of one of the most anticipated American military maneuvers in recent history from the inside out, rather than the outside in, using a similar virtual embed technique integrated with traditional verite documentary style that was developed in making The War Tapes.

Passionate about her innovative "integrative" filmmaking and the new frontier in storytelling: the intersection where web 2.0 meets technology meets documentary, Scranton started her career in television covering a variety of world-renowned events including the Tour de France, the Winter Olympics, and US Open Tennis for ABC Sports, CBS Sports, MTV Networks, ESPN, and was also a special assignment reporter. She graduated from Brown University with a degree in Semiotics. A former member of the U.S. Ski Team, Scranton resides on her farm in the mountains of New Hampshire.

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Erin Solaro, a former professional dog trainer and overeducated DC secretary, went to Iraq and Afghanistan on grants to study American servicewomen, and as an embedded journalist for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Women in the Line of Fire  (Seal, 2006) was the first book to combine personal experience with academic and policy analysis. Works-in-progress include To Live -- as If in Freedom, profiles of six women who dared to become politically active in Nazi Germany, Russia, Afghanistan and here; and a novel, Shipping Out. Erin lives in what's left of the woods outside Shelton, Washington, with her partner, writer Philip Gold, and various animals.

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Elizabeth S. Taylor directs the Nonfiction Writing Program in the Department of English at Brown. She teaches creative nonfiction -- literary journalism, historical narrative, memoir, and radio nonfiction, as well as "Writing the Southeast Asian War." She earned her PhD in American Literature from Brown in 1989, then taught at Harvard before returning to Brown. A former feature writer, and now book reviewer, for the Providence Journal, her most recent essays include a reflection on Brown's new Nonficton Writing Program in Composition Studies, "Apprenticing Nonfictionists" in The Journal of Teaching Writing, and "Itches and Scratches" in Brown Alumni Magazine. Her essays on the Vietnam War era include a Pendle Hill pamphlet, "Quaker in Vietnam: Rick Thompson (1943-1973)"; "Fighting Pacifism" in Friends Journal; "Crossing the Line: Finding Butch," in War, Literature, and the Arts; "Lost to Vietnam: Choices and Impact" in the anthology, Friends and the Vietnam War, and on the web site "Writing Vietnam."

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Trish Wood is an award winning investigative journalist and interviewer who has spent the past three years learning the truth about the Iraq War from the men and women who fight there. These stories of the war are collected in an oral history called What Was Asked of Us, a critically acclaimed book excerpted in Harpers Magazine, made a critic’s pick by People Weekly and described as “monumental” and “perhaps the only book about Iraq that matters” by the San Francisco Chronicle.

Ms Wood has been honored by the Canadian Association of Journalists, the Canadian Science Association, the Radio-Television News Directors Association, the National Magazine awards, and the New York Film Festival.

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Andrew Woods is currently a Lecturer at Harvard Law School, where he is editing a book bout the social foundations of international law. Andrew’s work focuses on the role of culture and media, broadly defined, in human rights advocacy. His recent projects include: an interdisciplinary set of workshops on creative human right promotion (humanrightsandmedia.com); GOOD Magazine, where he edits essays (goodmagazine.com); and a web-archive of soldier stories, (soon to be at www.soldiertestimony.org) where he hopes to encourage self-reflection by giving state-agents a human voice. A member of the class of ’02 at Brown, Andrew is also a Gates Scholar at Cambridge University.

--- Thanks to the ever-outstanding John Powers for the notice on this!  Click here and here for two links about John.

One Great Quote

In the spirit of empathy with how the woes of current vets and combat trauma, re-opens old wounds -- well, it's safe to say many of those wounds never actually healed -- from vets of previous conflicts, there's a great quote I came across on a fellow blogger's site this week.  It said,

"It takes me so long to read the paper," said to me a novelist one day hot as a firecracker, "because I have to identify myself with everyone in it, including the corpses, pal." -- John Berryman

For an experience of war that never leaves us, well said.

Helping the Warrior to Make Peace (with Himself or Herself)

Catching up on some items worth noting -- here is an Interesting blog post from back in May, by an Anglican priest - referencing the well-known. British World War I poet, Wilfred Owen.  The blog entry focuses on helping the warrior to make peace within, and is well worth reading, about the effects of war on the soldiers who fight them, from a spiritual perspective.

PTSD Civil Incidents Timeline

Deaths like that of Jamie Dean should not go unremarked.  The PTSD Timeline, a prior project of blogger Ilona Meagher, author of the brand-new book, "Moving a Nation to Care: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and America's Returning Troops," is an excellent, sobering, and one-of-a-kind repository of incidents that involve combat veterans and PTSD -- that make media coverage for one grim reason or another, after they return from war.  It doesn't make for light reading, but it is vitally important to the conversation -- at least, the conversation we as a country ought to be having, about veterans care after combat.

Patient Advice for Those "Home from War"

Patience Mason, author of one of the finest post-Vietnam era books on healing from combat trauma and PTSD (see sidebar), has released a wonderful article on her blog about how to handle coming "home from war."  She directs readers to the PDF copy of the article if they'd like to read it in its most legible form.  That article is linked directly here, from her publishing company, Patience Press.  If you want to learn more about Patience Mason (and you should!), here's a link to more information she's provided.  Her book, Recovering from War, is one of the seminal works on combat trauma and its effect on veterans and their families alike.  Well worth reading and well worth familiarizing yourself with.  Patience is often said to be a virtue - but this Patience is also a very important ally for veterans and families in recovering from PTSD.

And Now for a Little Interlude of Beauty...

It's great to see that USMC Warrant Officer and Marine combat artist Michael Fay has his blog, Fire and Ice, back up and running on Blogger.  We've covered the compelling beauty of his work before here.  [Honestly, I'm not sure I would have trusted Blogger again after the unfortunate/deliberate hacking incident, which allowed someone else to end up with Mike's site after it got an astronomical number of hits following press coverage of him and his work in mid-April by the BBC, but that's an aside.]  Fay's blog "warrants" our attention because he's a combat artist with many tours of duty to his credit who's also got a tremendous ability to capture the experience of war in its combatants' faces.  Fay's work is now on display at the James A. Michener museum in Doylestown, PA, through October 21, 2007, as well as at the National Museum of the Marine Corps, USMC Combat Art Gallery, in Triangle, VA.  If you're in the area, check it out in person -- it's phenomenal.  If you don't have the luxury of visiting, be sure to check it out on his reconstituted, fortunately resuscitated blog.

Technology Builds a Caring Bridge

A low-tech, high-touch resource that's available to combat veterans and their families today is CaringBridge, which calls itself "a place ot heal, celebrate and share" (on the Web, parentheses mine). 

As their PR announces, CaringBridge™ is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization offering free personalized Web sites to those wishing to stay in touch with family and friends during significant life events. Our mission is to bring together a global community of care powered by the love of family and friends in an easy, accessible and private way.

CaringBridge authors quickly and easily create personalized Web sites that display journal entries and photographs. Well-wishers visit the site to read updates and leave messages in the Guestbook.

The CaringBridge experience is unique for both authors and visitors in its immediacy, intimacy and wide-reaching impact. We make profound human connections, using technology to serve a higher purpose in a powerful way.

As of January 24, 2006, we have hosted more than 35,000 CaringBridge sites. Those sites have received more than 210 million visits and over 5 million guestbook messages.

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Several 3/7 Marines wounded in Iraq in early December, 2005 have great websites via CaringBridge, that allow their family and friends to stay in touch and offer updates to wellwishers round the world.  The power of these updates is pretty impressive.  One young Marine's website has logged over 25,000 visits since mid-December, and respondents mention checking in daily to see and encourage his progress.  Visitors to the guu's various websites on CaringBridge can also follow their joint progress, as they encourage each other in the journey from trauma to healing.  (E.g., Marines Travis Greene and Neil Frustaglio and Naval Corpsman Tony Bullene, among others.)