Survivor stories
The Bush administration has all but banned news media from showing coffins and body bags coming back from Iraq, but there's nothing it can do to silence the walking wounded, and that may turn out to have a far more influential effect on where the war goes from here.
Thanks to medical advances in hospitals and the battle zone, more of the injured are surviving to return home than in any previous war -- about 90 percent of casualties. Where more than 3,000 U.S. troops have died in Iraq, more than 27,000 have survived their injuries.
"The Sopranos" star James Gandolfini talks with 10 of them this weekend, including Sgt. Bryan Anderson of Rolling Meadows, in a new special he produced for HBO. It makes a powerful statement on the war without once mentioning politics, Saddam Hussein, weapons of mass destruction or the religious divide in Iraq.
"Alive Day Memories: Home From Iraq" debuts at 9:30 p.m. Sunday on the premium-cable channel, but while it might seem at first glance to be a feel-good story it's far more complicated than that.
Gandolfini, who narrates the hourlong documentary and serves as interviewer, says two personal dates have come to have more importance than any others for these survivors: their birthdays and their "alive days," the days they survived an attack in Iraq.
Yet Anderson, who is the first interview subject, punctures what joy there is in that notion right away. "Everybody makes a big deal about your 'alive day,'" he says. "And I can see their point, that you'd want to celebrate something like that. But from my point of view, it's like, 'OK, we're sitting here celebrating the worst day of my life. Great, let's just remind me of that every year.'"
Anderson is eloquent and, like each of the interview subjects, utterly matter-of-fact about describing the incident in which he was hurt and the aftermath of his injuries. Even more eloquent, though, are the clips of him boxing in an Army bout before he lost both of his legs and, before that, performing gymnastics at Rolling Meadows High School.
"Alive Day Memories" uses such found footage to flesh out the tales, as well as pieces prepared by the injured, such as the playful segment put together by Cpl. Jonathan Bartlett. It even draws on video shot by Iraqi insurgents of roadside blasts, to put a viewer on site in the war zone.
Yet the core of this documentary is the interviews, with Gandolfini -- "Call me Jim," he says -- gently, respectfully asking questions of the survivors.
Some are more determined than others to be upbeat. Spc. Crystal Davis shows off a Tigger tattoo commemorating her alive day, and although she lost a leg -- now her good leg, as it turns out, with the prosthetic replacement -- she goes on to dance at a local bar to celebrate the first anniversary.
Others have a little more difficulty being cheery, although the sort of enduring humor shown by Anderson wearing a "Stumpy" T-shirt is prevalent. Following his postwar divorce, Cpl. Michael Jernigan had the diamonds taken from his wife's wedding ring and implanted in his prosthetic eye.
"It's not normal to kill somebody," he allows. "That's gonna change you."
Pvt. Dexter Pitts, suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, echoes that. "I'm a nice guy. I'm a teddy bear," he says. But he can't stop dwelling on the things he "had to do" in Iraq. "I don't want to be crazy Uncle Dex who fought in the war," he says.
To a person, they seem proud to have served their country, especially on such a demanding assignment. And Gandolfini is above all respectful of what they've given. When they say thanks at the end of the interviews, he inevitably insists, "Thank you," and in that he speaks for the audience as well.
But that doesn't make everything all right. "Sure, they give you medals, and they tell you you're alive, but you feel empty," says Staff Sgt. Jay Wilkerson.
First Lt. Dawn Halfaker puts the conflicting emotions in perspective when she says, "I think people come away from the war wanting to feel that they made a difference, wanting to feel like their sacrifice, or their time, or their energy was worth it. War is horrible. I don't like the sounds associated with it, the smells I associate with it. But I'm glad I did it."
"Alive Day Memories" never bogs down in whether the war is justified or winnable. What it does instead is study the cost -- not just in lives lost, but in lives shattered and put back together out of sheer determination. These people deserve to have their say; they've earned it more than anyone else has. Now, with HBO intending to stream the documentary on its hbo.com Web site the day after it debuts, it's up to all of us to listen to them and heed what they're saying.
In the air
Remotely interesting: Chicago native Lourdes Duarte is returning to town as a general-assignment reporter for WGN Channel 9. The DePaul graduate most recently worked as an anchor-reporter at WJBK-TV, the Fox affiliate in Detroit, and previously worked freelance here in town for Telemundo. … WFLD Channel 32 has changed the name of its morning news show to "Good Day Chicago."
"Project Runway" "make it work" fashion guru Tim Gunn gets his own show with "Guide to Style" debuting at 9 p.m. today on Bravo. … "Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader" returns for its second season at 7 p.m. today on Channel 32.
End of the dial: The "Chicago Matters" public-affairs series airing on WBEZ 91.5-FM and WTTW Channel 11 will be focusing on the immigrant experience in Palatine and Elgin as part of its ongoing "Beyond Borders" theme.
Syndicated WLIT 93.9-FM morning host Whoopi Goldberg has formally joined "The View" at 10 a.m. weekdays on WLS Channel 7.
-- Ted Cox