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Article published Mar 30, 2010
Iraq, Afghan war veterans speak (reluctantly)
Norwich students produce documentary
By Thatcher Moats
Times Argus Staff
NORTHFIELD – Making the documentary "The War at Home" was no easy task.
The
film, which a group of Norwich University students recently completed
and screened at the college on Sunday, features interviews with soldiers
from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and explores the challenges they
have faced returning to civilian life.
But getting the veterans
to talk on camera was tough.
The students and their professor
initially planned to repeat a process that a group of students used
about 10 years ago in a film about Vietnam veterans. In that case, the
students attended group counseling sessions in Cambridge, Mass., and
White River Junction to gather footage and stories.
But when the
Norwich students began making "The War at Home" in the summer of 2008
and tried to take that approach, they ran into a problem, said Bill
Estill, Norwich communications professor.
Veterans of the wars in
Iraq and Afghanistan weren't going to Veterans Affairs Medical Centers
seeking counseling, he said. The few that were going were not in good
enough shape to tell their story, Estill was told.
"These global
war on terror veterans are not going for treatment," said Estill. "What
we expected to exist to tell the story didn't exist."
So Estill
tried to get veterans at Norwich, which as a private military academy
last spring had 210 veterans on campus, to talk on camera about their
experiences.
They wouldn't open up, Estill said.
"They
were cold, dull, short interviews," he said.
In response, Estill
and his film students created a class called the Veterans Seminar
specifically to get veterans talking.
In the seminar, surrounded
by other people who had seen combat, the veterans began telling their
stories. Within three weeks of the start of the seminar, many of the
veterans agreed to continue talking – this time in front of Norwich film
students with cameras.
The veterans were each presented with the
same 34 questions, and their answers, captured on film and interspersed
with still photos and video footage of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars,
forms "The War at Home."
The film, which is about an hour long,
was screened at Dole Auditorium at Norwich for an audience that included
some of the veterans who were interviewed for the film, along with
family members of Vermont soldiers who have died in the wars in the
Middle East.
The soldiers in the documentary talked about why
they joined the military, what they saw when they were deployed and what
they experienced when they came home. It was clear they had seen things
that most Vermonters never will.
Several veterans said they were
inspired to join the military by characters in movies, including Jason
Bourne and Rambo. Others were responding to the attacks on Sept. 11,
2001.
Many veterans said there is no way to be completely
prepared for combat.
"War is an inhuman thing," said one. "I
don't think anyone can say they're prepared for it."
"There's a
radical difference between the reality of combat and everything you've
been taught to expect," said a female veteran.
Adam Bradford, 26,
who is originally from Riverside, Calif., talked about a young girl who
was shot and killed.
"The kid who pulled the trigger didn't cope
too well because he had a daughter the same age," Bradford said.
Soldiers
also talked about what it was like coming back to the United States
after such intense experiences.
"I've had two friends kill
themselves since they came back," said Jamie Corcoran, who described
himself as a "country kid" from Franklin County. He quickly added that
more recently a third friend committed suicide. "He probably shouldn't
have gone back a third time."
Corcoran had tattoos on his arm
commemorating what appeared to be eight guys he fought with who died.
Pointing
to one, Corcoran said: "He had a baby two days after he died."
"I
just want to live a normal life because they can't," Corcoran said.
A
common theme in the statements by many veterans is their desire to be
viewed and treated as normal people when they get home. They don't want
to be looked at as different, or crazy, or special, many of them said.
Getting
this point across was one of the best things about making the
documentary, said Bradford in an interview after the screening.
"As
far as telling the story, it's good to hear our perspective on things,"
he said. "Not all of us have PTSD. We're not all crazy maniacs."
Bradford
is attending Norwich and is still enlisted.
"I've seen friends
die in front of me and I know why it happened," Bradford said. "It was
for the ultimate good."
Almost no one expressed regret about
having joined the military and serving their country.
"I
definitely feel I've earned my place as an American," said Ty Armstrong,
who is attending Norwich and is originally from Carson City, Nev.
Estill
said some of the interviews with veterans lasted 35 minutes and some
lasted five hours. A couple shed tears. Most did not. Several of them
acknowledged seeing significant events from the war replayed daily in
their minds.
Estill said that some of the veterans in the film
may still be, in some ways, not yet confronting trauma, and the veterans
in the film often didn't go into the "nitty-gritty" details, as one of
them put it. One veteran in the film acknowledged that there's "Story A"
and "Story B" – the first being the lighter version of their overseas
experience; the latter is a darker version.
One veteran in the
film joked that when people ask what it was like in the Middle East he
sometimes just says it was hot, and people usually don't probe further.
Several
vets noted that getting together and talking to other veterans about
their experiences is just better and makes more sense than talking to a
doctor.
"I'm not big on talking to cameras or reporters or
doctors," said Bradford, who had to be pestered for six months to agree
be interviewed for the film. "If you tell a doctor: 'I shot someone in
the head,' how can they relate? Talking to other vets is a more
comfortable setting. He's been there, he's done that. It just makes more
sense."
Estill said that the film and the seminar got veterans
talking about experiences they hadn't shared before and was beneficial.
"They've
never sat down for hours and told their stories," he said. "They
haven't been over many of these issues with their wives."
Estill
said "The War at Home" gives viewers a peek at a type of conversation
between combat vets they wouldn't normally see.
"This is a
discussion that you wouldn't be privy to otherwise," he said.
"The War at Home" has its genesis
in a previous Norwich documentary called "Vermont Fallen," which
premiered in 2007. "Vermont Fallen" chronicles the grieving process of
the family members, siblings and children of Vermonters who died in Iraq
and Afghanistan.
After that project, family members of Vermont
soldiers who died in Afghanistan and Iraq were left with lingering
questions about what has happened to the soldiers who survived the two
wars, said Estill.
"They were wondering: 'Who picked up the
pieces of my son?'" said Estill.
The Norwich students responded
by producing "The War at Home."
Several family members of the
deceased Vermont soldiers featured in "Vermont Fallen" attended the
screening.
Ty Armstrong, who was a veteran shown in the film,
spoke outside the auditorium with Mindy Evnin of South Burlington, who
is one of the mothers of a Vermont soldier who died in Iraq.
They
discovered that Armstrong knew of Evnin's son, Mark Evnin, though he
didn't know him personally.
They were both in the 3rd Battalion,
4th Marines, 7th Marine Regiment, said Armstrong, who was a machine
gunner in a weapons platoon.
"Oh my goodness," Armstrong said,
putting his hand over his mouth when he realized he recognized Mark
Evnin's name. "I didn't know him, but I knew of him."
Mark Evnin
was a sniper who was shot and killed in Al Kut on April 3, 2003, as
American troops were on their way to Baghdad at the beginning of the
war, Mindy Evnin said.
"It's a small, small world," Evnin said to
Armstrong.
After Evnin stepped away, Armstrong said he remembers
hearing the announcement of her son's death over the radio.
"I
remember it coming over the net," he said.
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A welcoming home for our Troops.
