------
SCRIPT
02.11-02.18 Derek Gerrity (18) / High school student:
Im ready to leave, you know. I have been here for 18 years. I just wanna go out and fight the big fight, in Iraq.
02.21-02.30 Derek Gerrity (18) / High school student:
Getting to fight for your country and fight for what you believe in and stuff like that. Putting my time in, I guess for being part of something bigger than me. You know, its worth it, I guess.
02.32-02.48
This is Montana, the middle of nowhere, the part of America that not too long ago was still called: The Wild West. Empty, isolated between the mountains and far from prosperity. Whoever wants to get out of here, only has one real option: the military. Here is where the new troops for Iraq are recruited.
02.48-02.57 Sergeant J.Gray / Recruiter US Army
What we have is a list of names and phone numbers and addresses of all the students that are currently in highschool, that are highschool seniors that are gonna graduate.
(02.57-03.00) Do you want in the army? Why not man? What?
03.00- 03.05
War is unreal to these seventeen year old high school students; its like one big adventure.
03.05-03.11 Derek Gerrity / highschool student
I really wanna travel. Wanna see different cultures, languages, try different food
03.13-03.19
While they are dreaming of traveling, others come back from the war.
03.24 -03.33 Matthew Schehl / Iraq veteran
These things haunt you, they do not go away. Mutilated bodies, whether its dead children... They are there.
03.37-04.41
The War Heroes from Iraq, who return home and have to face that other reality;
03.41-03.58 Matt Kuntz / stepbrother Chris Dana
He could not do the military stuff anymore. He couldnt bring himself to do it anymore. He had been in too heavy combat, he could not do it. He was just sad. And he felt betrayed, because we betrayed him. He committed suicide. It killed him.
04.03-04.16
The war in Iraq and the powers that be in Washington, its all so far away from here. But the impact of the war on American society is maybe best seen here: in rural Montana. And even here the anti-war protest is slowly gaining momentum.
04.18-04.25 Thomas Bearhead Swaney / war protestor
These people died in vain. They were wasted. Why dont they say they were wasted? These people didnt have to die.
04.34-04.44
This is Polson High School. US Army recruiters on a mission.
04.41-04.55 Sergeant J.Gray / Recruiter US Army
We are in Polson, Montana, the largest school in our area. This is part of the recruiting section. There are about 120 seniors. Probably about 500 total. From 9th till 12th grade.
04.56-05.02
Sergeants Gray and Shad, looking for new soldiers.
05.09-05.15
They visit the schools every week, to catch the students on their lunch break. The school administrators offer every assistance they can.
05.15-05.45 (Scene with students)
Sergeant Shad / recruiter US Army
What grade youre in, man? Senior? Thinking about joining the military?
Highschool student
Sort of; its an option.
Sergeant Shad:
What do you wanna do, man? What kinda work you wanna do?
Highschool student:
I wanna paint Cars
Sergeant Shad:
Paint Cars? Cool. Check the army, man. You can do that in the army. Be a mechanic, do whatever man. We pay for your college, the whole 9 yards.
Take some information man.
05.46- 06.04 Sergeant Gray / recruiter US army
You always wanna talk to the younger kids, because in a couple of years theyre gonna be in the same situation, so. Just to kinda get your name outthere. And like next year, some of the younger people will know who I am. Just by me coming in the door. Thats something you want. They feel comfortable talking to you. You dont wanna be like a stranger coming in. They dont know who you are, so.
06.04-06.22 (scene with students)
Sergeant Gray / recruiter US Army
What grade are you in, again? Freshman? Take this. You have a couple of years left. But.. .here you have my phone number and stuff. Obviously you have a couple of years, but you know we start to ask questions now.
06.23- 06.53
Keychains and phone-numbers change hands. These are 13-, 14-year olds. They can not enlist just yet, but they can be enticed into a future in the army. This is recruiting heaven. Polson, a small lakeside town in the heart of an Indian Reservation. No jobs, no future. And a lot of emptiness.
06.54-06.59 Derek Gerrity / Highschool student
Its really boring sometimes. Just doing the same old stuff everyday.
07.00-07.09
Eighteen year old Derek Gerrity is in his finals at high school. Hes a jock, who is about to enlist for four years.
07.10-07.32 Derek Gerrity / Highschool student
Getting to fight for your country and to believe in stuff like that. Also comes with benefits. Youre not just going to fight there, for education, your gonna get paid. I dont know exactly what I´m gonna do right after high school. So I can spend that four years debating on what I wanna do later on, for a career.
07.37-07.49
This is his world: Rural Montana; patriotic; Republican territory. And this is his uncles farm where cows are branded four times a year, like it has always been done.
07.49-07.57 Derek Gerrity / Highschool student
Im going good. Nothing like a good days worth of branding, I guess. Rough? No, not to bad. Its pretty fun, actually.
08.00-08.04
Derek wants to join the navy. Doing something technical, if it is up to him.
08.05-08.20 Derek Gerrity (18 / Highschool student)
It offers some education, what I wanna do. Where it actually pays for your college, when you get out. I dont really have the money for college right of the bet. I have to take out a loaner.
08.21-09.03 Matt Kuntz / stepbrother Chris Dana
A day after the funeral, this was printed. War vet laid to rest. Buried as a hero. I think a lot of it was the money. That and the benefits. He had a job that wasnt giving him quite enough to live. He just needed more. The other thing , he did wanna show himself that he could be brave, could be strong. Probably braver than he ever thought he could be.
09.03-09.25
Chris Dana. He was as old as Derek is now, 18 years of age, when he became a soldier. His story is told by his stepbrother, Matthew Kuntz.
09.25-09.32 Matt Kuntz / stepbrother Chris Dana
Very sweet kind gentle kid. He was a librarian assistant, he was very bookish. Then he showed he could be so brave. From a library- assistant to a machine gunner, amazing live journey.
09.32-09.41
Less than a year after enlisting, Chris had to go to war in Iraq. He hadnt realised what he had signed up for.
09.43-10.04 Derek / highschool student
My parents dont like it with the dangers. I think about it every once in a while. But fighting for what you believe in and stuff like that, its worth it. But I dont really sit there and think: oh, it could happen to me. I just think about the benefits and what it stands for.
10.06
The risks of war almost never come up in these conversations.
1010-1017
Thomas Bearhead Swaney. Flathead Indian, war veteran and self appointed Conscience of Montana.
10.19-11.10 Thomas Bearhead Swaney / war protester
This is for the one Indian girl that was killed. This is her cross. And then I gotta find out how many Indians were killed and they have red crosses, like this one.
How many crosses do you have?
263, I have got 50 on the ground that I have to put in. They stand for the death of every American killed. So when Im done, I have three or four thousand.
11.11-11.24
In his reservation high school students are also recruited. De sergeants arrive at the Indian Two Eagle River School near Polson.
11.24-11.33 Sergeant Gray / recruiter US Army
This is one of the smaller ones in this area down here. But they are all equally important. All the students are our concern and we want to help everyone.
1135-1140
Here man, just put your name and number on that. Dont worry about the rest.
11.45- 11.47
They approach the students during lunch break. And emphasise the advantages and perks of an army career.
11.49- 12.07 Sergeant J. Gray / recruiter US army
Now we offer him up to 38.000 dollars for the GI bill (bonus). And thats for the student to use after he gets out of the
Military. So if he does three years in the army, when he gets out he has 38000 dollars. Actually, it is up to 70.000 dollars now, the minimum
is 38.000 . He can use it when he gets out of the army to go to college.
12.07-12.14 High school Student
It think about this more. I think Im gonna do it, but not right now.
12.14-12.17 Sergeant J. Gray / recruiter US army
Just give me a call.
12.15-12.23
Free education, travel and big bonuses. Who would not go for it?
12.23-13.14 Sergeant J. Gray / recruiter US army
How big is the chance to go to Iraq?
The chances are about 50/50, the chance you gonna go. There is no guarantee one way or the other. We like to tell people there is a good chance that
they are going to Iraq. And people just assume that with Iraq there is danger involved, and there is. We talked to other kids who say that there is just as
much chance getting hurt going home from school today or going out for the weekend snowboarding . So, the risk is always there no matter what you
do in life. Ýeah, a war situation is worse.
But every day a soldier dies now?
Yeah, well I dont know about that, as far as every day. But yeah, there are people getting hurt and thats a fact of war and a fact of being in the
military
13.14-13.25
Fact is that everyone enlisting now almost certainly will have to serve in Iraq Back to Matt Kuntz, Chris Danas stepbrother; 19 years old when he left for Iraq, the library-assistant who became a machine gunner.
13.25-14.10 Matt Kuntz / stepbrother Chris Dana
He stood up on vehicles and fired a fifty calibre machinegun and took care of his soldiers. Was it a dangerous position?Incredibly dangerous. I cant tell
you how dangerous it was, he was nearly killed. He had an improvised explosive devise blow up and somebody pulled him down. So it didnt hit him. He
was standing on the vehicle with the machine gun. Open to everybodys fires. Just so brave, so scary to do that day in day out. To have that level of
courage to go do that day in day out, is just amazing to me. Im really proud of him.
14.11-14.21
Matt stayed in touch with his stepbrother in Iraq. But what Chris was really going through remained a secret, also to his father, Gary Dana.
14.22-14.33 Gary Dana / father Chris Dana
He was talking about the weather. Its is cold out here. He had a guard duty. It rained all night. He just talked about the simple things. I dont think he
wanted to worry me and his mom too much.
14.46-15.52
Around that same time Matthew Schehl was also sent to Iraq. Like no one else, he knows what Chris went through.
15.53-15.27 Matthew Schehl / Iraq veteran
Mortar fire, people are killed or maybe you are killing people. Its happening all the time. There is nothing to prepare you for that. Its awful, its hell. Its difficult to describe but if I can not walk from here to that light pole, without having to think about a mortar exploding That becomes a habitual thing. You always think about someone in that building shooting you or mortars coming in.
15.27-15.39
Eighteen months of constantly being exposed to the insanity of war. It changed him. It changed Chris.
15.44- 16.12 Matthew Schehl / Iraq veteran
It changes the brain when you live like that on a day to day basis. You get accustomed to that. I would have to say, by way of coming back home here, later on Your mind is structured to think that way. Unconsciously. Everyday thats the case, things come back and it doesnt go away. You are always thinking in survival mode.
16.12- 16.21
That survival mode brought them home. Matthew and Chris survived the war. Unharmed, at least: thats what they thought.
16.21-17.11 Gary Dana / father Chris Dana
You must be very relieved when he came back?
I was so, oh, me and his mom were so. We had a party for him at his place. We had all the family up. Somebody picked him up the airport and I was
Hiding behind the door. And hed come in and just It was good to have him home. All the others ones that did not come back. We were so thankful that he cameback.
17.11-17.15
Chris was home, but fatally wounded. But no one noticed.
17.16-17.56 Gary Dana / father Chris Dana
I always asked him: How are you handling the stuff you saw over there? He said always Im handling it ok. I took it to heart that he was. But the first
few months I was with him and we were driving and he was getting this look like staring and I just said Chris, Chris. Oh ..he wouldnt say where he
was, but I could tell. He was back in Iraq or something.
17.56-18.00
They did not know just how severely depressed Chris had become. Just like Matthew.
18.00-18.40 Matthew Schehl / Iraq veteran
If I was stuck in traffic I would have anxiety attacks, my heart just starts pounding, I have trouble breathing. For me I kept looking for my pistol. I had it
on my thy. When you are sinking like that, you are closed off from the world. And there is nobody that you can talk to, that understand where you are at.
Especially when you dont understand yourself. Its despair, its hell. You just keep sinking.
18.40-18.51
Also Chris condition became worse. Gradually he isolated himself. And he did not want to go back to his army base.
18.51-19.14 Matt Kuntz / Stepbrother Chris Dana
He said that the military was giving him a dishonourable discharge. He could not do the military stuff anymore, he couldnt bring himself to do it
anymore. He had been in heavy combat, he could not do it. He was just sad. And he felt betrayed. He committed suicide. It killed him.
19.16-19.30
He survived the horror of Iraq. But he could not survive the horror in his mind. PTSD, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. He was dishonourably discharged for not showing up at the base anymore. No one from the military ever came by to see how he was doing.
19.30-19.58 Matt Kuntz /step brother Chris Dana
All of the big important people there, from the State. Burying him with honours. It made me realize that this was so foolish. So ridiculous that he had to
die in order to be treated like a hero. By putting a bullet in his head we now loved him again.
20.02-20.11 Sergeant Gray / recruiter US Army
You can actually take college while you are in and once you are out, they pay you 70.000 dollars for college, once you are out.
20.11-20.13 Sergeant Shad / recruiter US Army
Do you wanna be in the army? Why not? What?
20.1320.18
No one in the army ever called Matthew, or offered support. The counselling he finally got was through family and friends.
20.18-20.28 Matthew Schehl / Iraq veteran
You need to find people you can trust and talk about these things. Cause you can not go thru it alone, it will kill you. If you dont kill yourself.
20.28-20.36
Now Matt has begun his fight to urge authorities to drastically enhance the standard of help provided for Iraq war veterans.
20.36 -20.51 Matt Kuntz / step brother Chris Dana
He is not just some poor kid that couldnt face it. The story is that he was injured and we failed him.. He went to war for us and we betrayed him. That
makes me sick.
20.52-21.04 Derek Gerrity / highschool student
Yeah, I do look forward to it but at the same time I hate leaving here. I think its worth it. I wanna do it..
SCRIPT
02.11-02.18 Derek Gerrity (18) / High school student:
Im ready to leave, you know. I have been here for 18 years. I just wanna go out and fight the big fight, in Iraq.
02.21-02.30 Derek Gerrity (18) / High school student:
Getting to fight for your country and fight for what you believe in and stuff like that. Putting my time in, I guess for being part of something bigger than me. You know, its worth it, I guess.
02.32-02.48
This is Montana, the middle of nowhere, the part of America that not too long ago was still called: The Wild West. Empty, isolated between the mountains and far from prosperity. Whoever wants to get out of here, only has one real option: the military. Here is where the new troops for Iraq are recruited.
02.48-02.57 Sergeant J.Gray / Recruiter US Army
What we have is a list of names and phone numbers and addresses of all the students that are currently in highschool, that are highschool seniors that are gonna graduate.
(02.57-03.00) Do you want in the army? Why not man? What?
03.00- 03.05
War is unreal to these seventeen year old high school students; its like one big adventure.
03.05-03.11 Derek Gerrity / highschool student
I really wanna travel. Wanna see different cultures, languages, try different food
03.13-03.19
While they are dreaming of traveling, others come back from the war.
03.24 -03.33 Matthew Schehl / Iraq veteran
These things haunt you, they do not go away. Mutilated bodies, whether its dead children... They are there.
03.37-04.41
The War Heroes from Iraq, who return home and have to face that other reality;
03.41-03.58 Matt Kuntz / stepbrother Chris Dana
He could not do the military stuff anymore. He couldnt bring himself to do it anymore. He had been in too heavy combat, he could not do it. He was just sad. And he felt betrayed, because we betrayed him. He committed suicide. It killed him.
04.03-04.16
The war in Iraq and the powers that be in Washington, its all so far away from here. But the impact of the war on American society is maybe best seen here: in rural Montana. And even here the anti-war protest is slowly gaining momentum.
04.18-04.25 Thomas Bearhead Swaney / war protestor
These people died in vain. They were wasted. Why dont they say they were wasted? These people didnt have to die.
04.34-04.44
This is Polson High School. US Army recruiters on a mission.
04.41-04.55 Sergeant J.Gray / Recruiter US Army
We are in Polson, Montana, the largest school in our area. This is part of the recruiting section. There are about 120 seniors. Probably about 500 total. From 9th till 12th grade.
04.56-05.02
Sergeants Gray and Shad, looking for new soldiers.
05.09-05.15
They visit the schools every week, to catch the students on their lunch break. The school administrators offer every assistance they can.
05.15-05.45 (Scene with students)
Sergeant Shad / recruiter US Army
What grade youre in, man? Senior? Thinking about joining the military?
Highschool student
Sort of; its an option.
Sergeant Shad:
What do you wanna do, man? What kinda work you wanna do?
Highschool student:
I wanna paint Cars
Sergeant Shad:
Paint Cars? Cool. Check the army, man. You can do that in the army. Be a mechanic, do whatever man. We pay for your college, the whole 9 yards.
Take some information man.
05.46- 06.04 Sergeant Gray / recruiter US army
You always wanna talk to the younger kids, because in a couple of years theyre gonna be in the same situation, so. Just to kinda get your name outthere. And like next year, some of the younger people will know who I am. Just by me coming in the door. Thats something you want. They feel comfortable talking to you. You dont wanna be like a stranger coming in. They dont know who you are, so.
06.04-06.22 (scene with students)
Sergeant Gray / recruiter US Army
What grade are you in, again? Freshman? Take this. You have a couple of years left. But.. .here you have my phone number and stuff. Obviously you have a couple of years, but you know we start to ask questions now.
06.23- 06.53
Keychains and phone-numbers change hands. These are 13-, 14-year olds. They can not enlist just yet, but they can be enticed into a future in the army. This is recruiting heaven. Polson, a small lakeside town in the heart of an Indian Reservation. No jobs, no future. And a lot of emptiness.
06.54-06.59 Derek Gerrity / Highschool student
Its really boring sometimes. Just doing the same old stuff everyday.
07.00-07.09
Eighteen year old Derek Gerrity is in his finals at high school. Hes a jock, who is about to enlist for four years.
07.10-07.32 Derek Gerrity / Highschool student
Getting to fight for your country and to believe in stuff like that. Also comes with benefits. Youre not just going to fight there, for education, your gonna get paid. I dont know exactly what I´m gonna do right after high school. So I can spend that four years debating on what I wanna do later on, for a career.
07.37-07.49
This is his world: Rural Montana; patriotic; Republican territory. And this is his uncles farm where cows are branded four times a year, like it has always been done.
07.49-07.57 Derek Gerrity / Highschool student
Im going good. Nothing like a good days worth of branding, I guess. Rough? No, not to bad. Its pretty fun, actually.
08.00-08.04
Derek wants to join the navy. Doing something technical, if it is up to him.
08.05-08.20 Derek Gerrity (18 / Highschool student)
It offers some education, what I wanna do. Where it actually pays for your college, when you get out. I dont really have the money for college right of the bet. I have to take out a loaner.
08.21-09.03 Matt Kuntz / stepbrother Chris Dana
A day after the funeral, this was printed. War vet laid to rest. Buried as a hero. I think a lot of it was the money. That and the benefits. He had a job that wasnt giving him quite enough to live. He just needed more. The other thing , he did wanna show himself that he could be brave, could be strong. Probably braver than he ever thought he could be.
09.03-09.25
Chris Dana. He was as old as Derek is now, 18 years of age, when he became a soldier. His story is told by his stepbrother, Matthew Kuntz.
09.25-09.32 Matt Kuntz / stepbrother Chris Dana
Very sweet kind gentle kid. He was a librarian assistant, he was very bookish. Then he showed he could be so brave. From a library- assistant to a machine gunner, amazing live journey.
09.32-09.41
Less than a year after enlisting, Chris had to go to war in Iraq. He hadnt realised what he had signed up for.
09.43-10.04 Derek / highschool student
My parents dont like it with the dangers. I think about it every once in a while. But fighting for what you believe in and stuff like that, its worth it. But I dont really sit there and think: oh, it could happen to me. I just think about the benefits and what it stands for.
10.06
The risks of war almost never come up in these conversations.
1010-1017
Thomas Bearhead Swaney. Flathead Indian, war veteran and self appointed Conscience of Montana.
10.19-11.10 Thomas Bearhead Swaney / war protester
This is for the one Indian girl that was killed. This is her cross. And then I gotta find out how many Indians were killed and they have red crosses, like this one.
How many crosses do you have?
263, I have got 50 on the ground that I have to put in. They stand for the death of every American killed. So when Im done, I have three or four thousand.
11.11-11.24
In his reservation high school students are also recruited. De sergeants arrive at the Indian Two Eagle River School near Polson.
11.24-11.33 Sergeant Gray / recruiter US Army
This is one of the smaller ones in this area down here. But they are all equally important. All the students are our concern and we want to help everyone.
1135-1140
Here man, just put your name and number on that. Dont worry about the rest.
11.45- 11.47
They approach the students during lunch break. And emphasise the advantages and perks of an army career.
11.49- 12.07 Sergeant J. Gray / recruiter US army
Now we offer him up to 38.000 dollars for the GI bill (bonus). And thats for the student to use after he gets out of the
Military. So if he does three years in the army, when he gets out he has 38000 dollars. Actually, it is up to 70.000 dollars now, the minimum
is 38.000 . He can use it when he gets out of the army to go to college.
12.07-12.14 High school Student
It think about this more. I think Im gonna do it, but not right now.
12.14-12.17 Sergeant J. Gray / recruiter US army
Just give me a call.
12.15-12.23
Free education, travel and big bonuses. Who would not go for it?
12.23-13.14 Sergeant J. Gray / recruiter US army
How big is the chance to go to Iraq?
The chances are about 50/50, the chance you gonna go. There is no guarantee one way or the other. We like to tell people there is a good chance that
they are going to Iraq. And people just assume that with Iraq there is danger involved, and there is. We talked to other kids who say that there is just as
much chance getting hurt going home from school today or going out for the weekend snowboarding . So, the risk is always there no matter what you
do in life. Ýeah, a war situation is worse.
But every day a soldier dies now?
Yeah, well I dont know about that, as far as every day. But yeah, there are people getting hurt and thats a fact of war and a fact of being in the
military
13.14-13.25
Fact is that everyone enlisting now almost certainly will have to serve in Iraq Back to Matt Kuntz, Chris Danas stepbrother; 19 years old when he left for Iraq, the library-assistant who became a machine gunner.
13.25-14.10 Matt Kuntz / stepbrother Chris Dana
He stood up on vehicles and fired a fifty calibre machinegun and took care of his soldiers. Was it a dangerous position?Incredibly dangerous. I cant tell
you how dangerous it was, he was nearly killed. He had an improvised explosive devise blow up and somebody pulled him down. So it didnt hit him. He
was standing on the vehicle with the machine gun. Open to everybodys fires. Just so brave, so scary to do that day in day out. To have that level of
courage to go do that day in day out, is just amazing to me. Im really proud of him.
14.11-14.21
Matt stayed in touch with his stepbrother in Iraq. But what Chris was really going through remained a secret, also to his father, Gary Dana.
14.22-14.33 Gary Dana / father Chris Dana
He was talking about the weather. Its is cold out here. He had a guard duty. It rained all night. He just talked about the simple things. I dont think he
wanted to worry me and his mom too much.
14.46-15.52
Around that same time Matthew Schehl was also sent to Iraq. Like no one else, he knows what Chris went through.
15.53-15.27 Matthew Schehl / Iraq veteran
Mortar fire, people are killed or maybe you are killing people. Its happening all the time. There is nothing to prepare you for that. Its awful, its hell. Its difficult to describe but if I can not walk from here to that light pole, without having to think about a mortar exploding That becomes a habitual thing. You always think about someone in that building shooting you or mortars coming in.
15.27-15.39
Eighteen months of constantly being exposed to the insanity of war. It changed him. It changed Chris.
15.44- 16.12 Matthew Schehl / Iraq veteran
It changes the brain when you live like that on a day to day basis. You get accustomed to that. I would have to say, by way of coming back home here, later on Your mind is structured to think that way. Unconsciously. Everyday thats the case, things come back and it doesnt go away. You are always thinking in survival mode.
16.12- 16.21
That survival mode brought them home. Matthew and Chris survived the war. Unharmed, at least: thats what they thought.
16.21-17.11 Gary Dana / father Chris Dana
You must be very relieved when he came back?
I was so, oh, me and his mom were so. We had a party for him at his place. We had all the family up. Somebody picked him up the airport and I was
Hiding behind the door. And hed come in and just It was good to have him home. All the others ones that did not come back. We were so thankful that he cameback.
17.11-17.15
Chris was home, but fatally wounded. But no one noticed.
17.16-17.56 Gary Dana / father Chris Dana
I always asked him: How are you handling the stuff you saw over there? He said always Im handling it ok. I took it to heart that he was. But the first
few months I was with him and we were driving and he was getting this look like staring and I just said Chris, Chris. Oh ..he wouldnt say where he
was, but I could tell. He was back in Iraq or something.
17.56-18.00
They did not know just how severely depressed Chris had become. Just like Matthew.
18.00-18.40 Matthew Schehl / Iraq veteran
If I was stuck in traffic I would have anxiety attacks, my heart just starts pounding, I have trouble breathing. For me I kept looking for my pistol. I had it
on my thy. When you are sinking like that, you are closed off from the world. And there is nobody that you can talk to, that understand where you are at.
Especially when you dont understand yourself. Its despair, its hell. You just keep sinking.
18.40-18.51
Also Chris condition became worse. Gradually he isolated himself. And he did not want to go back to his army base.
18.51-19.14 Matt Kuntz / Stepbrother Chris Dana
He said that the military was giving him a dishonourable discharge. He could not do the military stuff anymore, he couldnt bring himself to do it
anymore. He had been in heavy combat, he could not do it. He was just sad. And he felt betrayed. He committed suicide. It killed him.
19.16-19.30
He survived the horror of Iraq. But he could not survive the horror in his mind. PTSD, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. He was dishonourably discharged for not showing up at the base anymore. No one from the military ever came by to see how he was doing.
19.30-19.58 Matt Kuntz /step brother Chris Dana
All of the big important people there, from the State. Burying him with honours. It made me realize that this was so foolish. So ridiculous that he had to
die in order to be treated like a hero. By putting a bullet in his head we now loved him again.
20.02-20.11 Sergeant Gray / recruiter US Army
You can actually take college while you are in and once you are out, they pay you 70.000 dollars for college, once you are out.
20.11-20.13 Sergeant Shad / recruiter US Army
Do you wanna be in the army? Why not? What?
20.1320.18
No one in the army ever called Matthew, or offered support. The counselling he finally got was through family and friends.
20.18-20.28 Matthew Schehl / Iraq veteran
You need to find people you can trust and talk about these things. Cause you can not go thru it alone, it will kill you. If you dont kill yourself.
20.28-20.36
Now Matt has begun his fight to urge authorities to drastically enhance the standard of help provided for Iraq war veterans.
20.36 -20.51 Matt Kuntz / step brother Chris Dana
He is not just some poor kid that couldnt face it. The story is that he was injured and we failed him.. He went to war for us and we betrayed him. That
makes me sick.
20.52-21.04 Derek Gerrity / highschool student
Yeah, I do look forward to it but at the same time I hate leaving here. I think its worth it. I wanna do it..