Alive Day Memories

I walked into the living room and turned on the TV. There was no rhyme or reason to when I got home and when I turned on the TV, but as soon as the picture developed, the screen read: "Alive Day Memories, Home From Iraq". Amazing, a documentary produced by James Gandolfini, that I knew about but had not had the opportunity to see. Now, here it was.

I watched as Gandolfini interviewed ten different soldiers who had been horribly injured in Iraq and lived to tell about it. I say Gandolfini interviewed them but in reality he sat and listened intently to each of these brave Americans talk about their brush with death, saying little.

Graphic video showed IEDs tearing apart Humvees, maiming the soldiers manning their posts. The documentary was not spun in either direction, it was the straight up truth about what each of these soldiers saw and felt.

Several soldiers, although proud of their service, still woke up every night seeing and living a personal hell when they re-lived in their mind the horrors of combat. Some said they would never go back and others said if given the opportunity they would go back. One soldier, now confined to a wheelchair had half his head ripped off causing a severe traumatic brain injury. He wants to go back to the Marine core as a drill instructor. Another Marine had both of his legs blown off, but even with no legs he was happier than ever when he took his kids ice skating.

Liberal or Conservative, if one watches this documentary you are moved by its power. These are our children, fathers, mothers, husbands and wives. Their sense of patriotic duty surpasses all understanding and for those who do not feel it, it is difficult to explain. Their words do not come easy and neither do the images. They braved the world and fought just as hard to tell the truth to America.

For these brave men and women, and the countless others injured in the War in Iraq, they now have two birthdays, the day they were brought into this world and their Alive Day, the day when they stepped over the line into death and came back.

Check out the link: http://www.hbo.com/aliveday/