The Veterans' Project; An Eye-Opening Experience

Nathaniel Moore

November 12, 2019

J3200

This past Monday I attended the free public viewing of the documentary "the Veterans' Project" that focuses on the medical issues and trials veterans experience when they are in and return home from combat. Before I say anything else, let me just say this first; "the Veterans' Project" was one of the most genuine, real and informative documentaries I have ever seen. The film contains powerful, raw emotion from the veterans it interviews along with cold-hard information about the reality most veterans experience when they return home from combat. 

Throughout the film, multiple veterans are interviewed and share insight about their combat experiences (most of them unpleasant) and how each of them has had to deal with handling these unpleasant memories. The film shows a wide range of people from your typical combat trooper to Medevac officers who are the first line of defense for soldiers between them and death on the battleground. No matter the position or title each interviewee held, each one gave a powerful testimony and depiction of what war and its effects are really like.



Along with their testimonies, each veteran gave an extremely real sense of the effects a veteran experiences when they return home. Some of the veterans were upset when they returned home from combat due to the feeling that they let their brothers and sisters of combat down. Others felt out of place, as if the world they were returning to had become some foreign planet they now had difficulty understanding and living in. Each veteran relayed his or her difficult experience in great detail, opening mine and the audience's eyes in the process.

One of the most powerful moments in the film came when a veteran was talking about returning home and mentioned the fact how the military doesn't train you how to come, how to handle becoming an amputee, etc. In that one little snip-bit of the film, the audience and myself gained perspective and important insight into one of the most consistent issues veterans to this day still face.

This part of the film reminded me of a scene I saw in another movie called "13 Hours" that tells the story of the Benghazi, Libya incident involving the CIA and the passing away of U.S ambassador J. Christopher Stevens. During this infamous incident, on the anniversary of 9/11 hundreds of Libya terrorists stormed the U.S embassy, setting the whole building on fire and destroying it in the process. In order to combat these threats, soldiers of the CIA (about six total) engaged in a 13 hour-long firefight in order to combat the assault.

At one point in the film when there is a break from the shooting, two soldiers reflect on the situation and one of them says how the only thing they were trained to do is fight, not retire and how to return home. When the film concludes, it describes how each CIA member involved that night retired from the CIA in order to stay with their families and work towards a normal life.

After seeing "the Veterans' Project", I can only imagine what those men had to deal with (and possibly are still dealing with) when they returned home. With mental health being such an issue in our country today, especially when it comes to veterans experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other psychological effects, I believe now was the perfect time for "the Veterans' Project" to be shown to the public.

 In order to solve our problems, we have to address them honestly and recognize they exist in order for us to move forward. After seeing "the Veterans' Project", I believe there isn't a better example that displays this problem-solving attitude.

What a film, what a topic and what an experience; "the Veterans' Project".