Soldiers

Navy Commander Ernest Duplessis of United States Central Command, administrative headquarters for U.S. military affairs in countries of the Middle East, Southwest Asia and Northeast Africa, including the Arabian Gulf. He gives the military response to McSallys suit.

His book The Ice Beneath You is based on his experiences as a young army private in Somalia in 1993, and his difficult return to civilian life. Hubert Selby Jr., the author of Last Exit to Brooklyn, said of Bauman's novel, "Beautifully crafted, structured, and simple... It is a pleasure to read the work of a real writer." Bauman is also a folksinger and songwriter with a CD, Roaddogs, Assasins & The Queen Of Ohio.

He served on the front line in a U.S. Marine Corps Surveillance and Target Acquisition/Scout-Sniper platoon during the Gulf War. He's written the new memoir, Jarhead: A Marine's Chronicle of the Gulf War and Other Battles. Journalist Mark Bowden (author of Black Hawk Down) writes of the memoir, "Jarhead is some kind of classic, a bracing memoir of the 1991 Persian Gulf War that will go down with the best books ever written about military life." Swofford attended the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop and is currently a Michener-Copernicus Fellowship recipient.

He is an expert on the mental health issues of military personnel and their families. He was a senior social worker in the first Gulf war counseling soldiers before and after battle. Martin has written extensively on these matters and teaches in the Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research at Bryn Mawr College outside of Philadelphia.

With two credits to go before college graduation, John Crawford was called to active duty and sent to the front lines in Iraq. Crawford had joined the Florida National Guard in order to pay his tuition and didn't expect to go to war. His new memoir is The Last True Story I'll Ever Tell.

Army National Guardsman Jason Christopher Hartley. While serving in Iraq, Hartley kept a blog of his experiences until his commanders forced him to shut it down. He’s now back from Iraq, and has a new memoir, “Just Another Soldier: A Year on the Ground in Iraq” (HarperCollins).

National Guard Lt. Paul Rieckhoff is the founder and executive director of the organization Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (formerly Operation Truth). One of the group's aims is to see that troops in active duty and veterans are properly provided for.

He has written a memoir about his tour in Iraq shortly after the occupation: Chasing Ghosts: A Soldier's Fight for America from Baghdad to Washington.

The new documentary Baghdad ER goes inside the 86th Combat Support Hospital in Iraq, the Army's premier medical facility in Iraq. Shot over two months in 2005, the film tells the stories of the hospital's doctors and wounded soldiers. The film debuted on HBO last week. Filmmakers Jon Alpert and Matthew O'Neill discuss their project with Terry Gross.

Sergeants Zack Bazzi and Stephen Pink were two of three soldiers on the frontlines in Iraq who were given cameras to record their experiences. Charlie Company, 3rd of the 172nd Infantry Regiment and were based in the Sunni Triangle. They filmed their entire year's deployment. The footage makes up the new documentary The War Tapes which was directed by Deborah Scranton. The film opens in New York and L.A. this weekend.

Jon Alpert and Matthew O'Neill recently won a coveted Peabody Award for their documentary Baghdad ER, which takes viewers inside the 86th Combat Support Hospital, the U.S. Army's primary medical facility in Iraq. Sometimes unflinchingly graphic in its reportage, the film tells the stories of the hospital's doctors and wounded soldiers. (5/29/2006)