“Fighting for Life” Documentary

From my blog www.MrsLieutenant.blogspot.com:

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Vietnam War Veteran: They Called Us Baby Killers

The technician at my doctor’s office yesterday — the anniversary of the Kent State shootings on May 4, 1970 — told me that last May he attended in Albuquerque, New Mexico, the 40th reunion of his Vietnam battalion. (He plans to attend the next scheduled reunion in Richmond, Virginia, in May of 2010.)

He had enlisted in the Navy, attended corpsman school, and then volunteered to go to Vietnam, serving in Da Nang. (Yes, he was there during the Tet offensive; I asked him.)

And then he talked about the bitterness with which he was greeted upon his return. The whole country had changed, he said. When he left, the Beatles were singing love songs; when he returned, they were wearing rose-colored glasses.

Do you know what they called us? he asked. Yes, I said. They called you baby killers.

To slightly change the subject, I told him that the night before I had screened the documentary FIGHTING FOR LIFE by Terry Sanders. The documentary depicts military doctors and nurses as well as their patients who are wounded in Iraq.

I told the technician that battlefield medicine had changed a great deal since Vietnam. But the truth is that the documentary’s opening scene is the scene I always connect with Vietnam – soldiers running, running with a stretcher, every second possibly the difference between life and death for the soldier on the stretcher.

FIGHTING FOR LIFE is uplifting — showing the miraculous recoveries being made today by some wounded military personnel.

And as we go from the Kent State anniversary to Memorial Day at the end of this month, I’m grateful that the men and women warriors returning from Iraq and Afghanistan are being treated with respect rather than name calling.

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Documentary FIGHTING FOR LIFE Offers a Compelling Story of Military Medical Men and Women Trying to Save Combat-Wounded Soldiers

The military doctors, nurses, orderlies and other military personnel seen in the documentary FIGHTING FOR LIFE are truly as heroic as are the combat-wounded men and women whose lives the medical personnel fight to save.

Nancy Brown of YourMilitary.com and I both screened the documentary before interviewing the producer/director/writer Terry Sanders on our BlogTalkRadio show.

Nancy and I agreed with Terry that he showed the bloody hospital scenes in a manner that does not make viewers turn away from the film. Instead, you want to follow what is happening to these wounded military personnel. And, as Terry said, the film should be seen by Americans so that we all keep in mind our wounded veterans.

The movie’s website is www.fightingforlifethemovie.com. And listen to our BlogTalkRadio interview of Terry Sanders — it’s a fascinating account of a filmmaker who got caught up in the story he started out to tell.