"In May 2003, Fox Company of Marine Reserve Unit 2/23, returned home from front-line combat in Iraq. Reserved To Fight follows four Marines of Fox Company for four years through their postwar minefield of social and psychological reintegration into civilian life. The return to their communities proves as formidable a battle as the more literal firefights of previous months. Living among loved ones who don’t yet understand them and how they have changed, contending with a media focused on the politics rather than the human experience of war, and suffering from a psychological disorder that is difficult to acknowledge, these young veterans grapple to find purpose and healing.
For each Marine, their new status as a young veteran leaves them often without goals, camaraderie, or an immediate channel for the adrenaline that their combat-ready bodies still produce, even many months later. Most significantly, they lack a safe place internally to store the images, sounds, and experiences collected from war. Encroaching civilian reality only serves to widen the painful gap that exists between them and the society in which they live; a gap which they feel so personally and painfully.
Taking anti-war media personally, Mark Patterson returns home adamantly speaking out against those who oppose the war. He is unwilling to admit that the war has affected him, and his life becomes consumed with trying to convince his peers that his actions in Iraq were correct. But when his long-time girlfriend and emotional support, Jana, suddenly breaks up with him, severe depression forces him to confront his past, drastically reshaping his future. Matt Jemmett is immediately diagnosed with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) after his return home, but when traditional therapy doesn’t work, he decides he needs seclusion and takes a job in a remote desert location
working with at-risk youth.
Raised in a strict religious society, Earl Simmons’ abuse of alcohol to fight traumatic memories of the war leaves him unable to fulfill a two-year church mission. Returning to his community for a second time, shame and seclusion force him to face his demons. Upon returning home, Chris Nibley just wants to be normal: “start a family and have a lot of kids.” However, finding himself depressed, he soon
realizes that he does not fit into this concept of “normal”. As a result he is left feeling isolated and without direction. All attempts to find happiness only leave him hopeless of ever finding his sense of purpose in America again and he makes a rash decision to volunteer for a second tour in Iraq; knowing, almost hoping, he will die.
As the Marines’ individual stories unfold, we discuss the mental stress of war and its affect on veterans of WWII and Vietnam.
Ray Howarth, a prisoner of war and purple heart recipient of WWII, struggled with severe emotional stress resulting in random bursts of rage. Forty years after the war he decided to visit a therapist and found “I was never deprogrammed from war.” Now Howarth has dedicated his life to helping veterans
readjust. Terry Haskell, a Vietnam veteran, reflects on his experience after coming home and shares “I was lost for ten years, I think time finally healed me. I could forgive.”
It is the stories of these veterans that make this film distinctive. While their lives are the vehicles for this story, it is ultimately about all veterans. Today, thousands of veterans walk a similar tight rope hinged on confusion, loneliness, isolation, and despair. This film will help them realize they are not alone, while offering awareness both for the veterans and their communities."
Sounds worth watching. In reality, reservists face special challenges unique to them. Non-career military, they are expected to "resume" normal lives as quickly as possible, but with all the same difficulties, sometimes even more, than those who are active-duty military. Like the National Guard, special care needs to be paid to the unique challenges of reservists. Wrenched from the common experience of wartime, they go back to civilian lives separated from their buddies, with whom they could otherwise hope to process the combat experience. Similarly, they also return to families, jobs and communities that frequently expect them to be more or less "fine," because they're now back from the war, yet with few resources to help them or their families integrate these divergent experiences.
Editor's note: If you want to read about another Marine battalion that served in Iraq, 1/25, also known as "New England's own," read this earlier blog entry, linked here, which mentions and links to the extensive coverage by the Boston Globe -- which gave reporter Charles Sennott a year to follow the battalion -- and the Providence Journal Bulletin. A good video, which we've also blogged about earlier, here, is from the Norfolk County (Massachusetts) District Attorney's office, called "PTSD and Veterans: Beyond the Yellow Ribbon." It talks about various re-adjustment issues after combat and particularly focuses on reservists. Highly recommended.
