02.02 quote wounded

From the door, where the EFP hit. It hit behind me. Lifted me up. Blew the doors off.

02.18 quote Shawn Latuch

I lost a couple of my friends. One of my best friends. To a sniper.

02.28 quote wounded

The gunner got shrapnel in his shoulder and leg. They killed a first lieutenant.

02.39 quote Shawn Latuch

A sniper got him. Right there in his shoulder. In that main artery. He bled to death.

02.50 quote medic

Got it. Got it. Lower. Lower.

02.58 quote Ronald Pettigrew - chaplain

Eric, my name is Chaplin Pettigrew. I want to welcome you to Landstuhl. I want you to know you're safe. We are going to take good care of you. Ok.

03.07 - voice-over text 1
The American Ramstein air base. Just like every morning transport aircraft land here, bringing wounded from the battlefield. Today not only an aircraft from Iraq is landing, but also one from Afghanistan.

03.21 quote medic

Ok, present. As you know we have flights coming in. The Baghram flight is on its way.

03.30 - voice-over text 2

Every morning the stretchers are lined up in front of one of the hospital's side entrances. Today there are 25.  

03.37 quote medic

Any questions? You know the drill. Lets get our gloves on and get ready.

03.44 - voice-over text 3

Doctors and nurses have to wait for patients to be driven from the airport to the hospital near the German town of Landstuhl. With a staff of 2500 this is the largest military hospital outside the US.

04.14 quote medic

Her name is Katy. Ok.

04.18 quote Ronald Pettigrew - chaplain

Hello, how are you doing Katy. I'm ok. My name is chaplen Pattygrew, I want to welcome you to Landstuhl. I want you to know you're safe and we are going to take good care of you, ok? Gods blessings to you.

04.30 voice-over text 4

Chaplain Ronald Pettigrew is the first to welcome the wounded to Germany. He thinks the ritual is important to the soldiers.

04.40 quote Ronald Pettigrew - chaplain

When they see us it means: ‘OK, I can talk. I can let my guard down. I don't have to worry about someone shooting at me.'

04.56 quote Shawn Latuch

We were going north. I was in the first truck. I was a gunner.

05.06 quote Shawn Latuch

An IED hit the side of the truck. The impact broke my leg. 

05.12 voice-over text 5
25-year-old Shawn Latuch arrived in Germany a few days ago. Meanwhile he has had several leg operations. Shawn was one of the lucky ones. His truck driver was severely injured. The Iraqi interpreter lost his left leg.

05.29 quote Shawn Latuch: We started getting incoming and militia was surrounding us. We were fighting them until medevac got in. Medevac got in and we were put on helo's and transported to the hospital in Baghdad.

05.48 question Piet de Blaauw, reporter

Where you not afraid that this would happen?

05.52 quote Shawn Latuch

Of course. Everybody is afraid it's going to happen. You just don't know when. Or where. You can get hurt getting off the plane home. When it's your time it's your time. And I thank God every day its not my time yet.

06.16 quote Theresa Gulley, nurse

We see a lot of injuries. A lot of bone injuries. Lot of legs and arms. Most of them because of blasts. Gunshot wounds as well. But a lot of them are blasts, RPG's, IED's. Different blasts.    

06.30 - voice-over text 6
Over the nine months that she has worked here, Theresa Gulley has seen the most horrible injuries. Still, according to Theresa, the soldiers suffering from psychological trauma are the most difficult to help.

06.45 quote Theresa Gulley, nurse

Their head was injured, so they don't have memory. They have a hard time focusing, those kind of injuries. And the memory of the situation. They have a hard time dealing with it. The post traumatic stress. Having a hard time loosing friends, buddy's, can be very difficult as well.

07.05 quote Shawn Latuch:

Yeah, I lost a couple of my friends; one of my best friends to a sniper. In the city that we were at. I took over his job. He was a gunner. In the first truck. Since he was med-evact (medical evacuation) he didn't even make it to the hospital. He died right there in the airplane, in the helo (helicopter). I took over his job in the first truck.

question Piet de Blaauw, reporter

Where you there when it happened?

quote Shawn Latuch

Yeah. It happened in the city where we were at. At the IP station. He was up on a building. Providing security. A sniper got him. Right there in his shoulder. In that main artery. He bled to death.

08.08 question Piet de Blaauw, reporter

Can you imagine going back when you are recovered?

08.13 quote Shawn Latuch

If I recover and I had to go back, I would go back because I had to. I wouldn't like it, but I would do my job not matter what.

08.26 quote Theresa Gulley, nurse

I don't question the war, its not my place. I'm here to do my part and this is my way to help. They are doing their part and I'm just here to help them.

08.38 question Piet de Blaauw, reporter

Do you see them having doubts every now and then?

08.40 quote information officer:

No.

08.44 question Piet de Blaauw, reporter

That's not OK to ask?

08.46 quote information officer:

No.

08.47 - voice-over text 7

The military information officer, who is present during the interview, steps in. Questions about what the soldiers think of the war in Iraq are not allowed.

09.02 quote Ronald Pettigrew - chaplain

May I come in? What brings you to this fine facility?

quote Leonard Day - wounded

I was deployed in Afghanistan. About a week ago hit an IED. On my way, on a patrol. It took away the whole front right side of the vehicle.

09.26 - voice-over text 8
Chaplain Ronald Pettigrew visits wounded soldiers for spiritual support. 27-year-old Leonard Day was wounded in his arm.

09.38 quote Leonard Day - wounded

I didn't notice that I was injured for the first 2 to 3 minutes. Until I felt water running down my arm. Which by that time I figured out that I was bleeding. I called upon the radio for a medic.

09.56 quote Leonard Day - wounded

I would like to go back.

09.57 question Piet de Blaauw, reporter

Will you go back?

09.58 quote Leonard Day - wounded

I would go back.

10.02 question Piet de Blaauw, reporter

You're not afraid of going back to a place where something like that happened to you?

10.06 quote Leonard Day - wounded

Like I said, you really don't think about that. Its not something that is always on your mind. We are infantry. This is what we do. We go out there. We do things that many people wouldn't want to do.

10.34 quote Ronald Pettigrew - chaplain

Very seldom do I see fear. I see a lot of times that they want to go back. You've been in a combat situation and people are firing at you. People that you work with almost become your family. They become closer. A lot of times they are more saying: why me? or they feel guilt that they are here and their buddies may have died or somebody else had a worse injury.    

11.04 - voice-over text 9

43,000 wounded American soldiers have been taken care of in Germany since 2001, before being flown on to the US. The 8 operating rooms at Landstuhl hospital are almost permanently occupied. The news on the latest victims reaches the operating rooms as well. An American helicopter has just crashed near Baghdad. All occupants were killed.

11.35 quote Medics

Got it. Got it. Lower.

11.40 - voice-over text 10
For over five years now America has been involved in a bloody war that seems without end. Thousands of ordinary American soldiers are marked for life as a result. Nobody expresses it openly, but even in the German hospital there seems to be quite some doubt as to the cause of the war.

12.02 quote Leonard Day - wounded

I understand where the mission is about. This is what the mission is; lets get it done.

12.08 question Piet de Blaauw, reporter

With so may casualties, is it still useful to be there?

question Leonard Day - wounded

Say again?

question Piet de Blaauw, reporter

With so may casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan, is it still useful to be there?

12.18 quote Leonard Day - wounded

I think ...

12.19 question Piet de Blaauw, reporter:

Is that allowed to ask?

12.22 quote information officer

It's allowed to ask and you can answer if you want to. He is asking if you feel its useful for the US to be there based on the number of casualties. Which is 3800 and another 40,000 injured. Its up to you, you don't have to answer any question. But yeah, you can ask him.

12.45 quote Leonard Day - wounded

I think that question I really don't want to answer. I think it would be my opinion based on anybody else‘s. Everybody is entitled on their own opinion. My opinion is just a small fracture, if not even a dent in what we have a say so in it. I wouldn't want to say something that would cause anger or resentment from either my soldiers, my subordinates, senior officers. So that's why I wouldn't answer it. No.

13.36 quote Ronald Pettigrew - chaplain

Father, God, I just come before You right now and I thank You for this opportunity to see Leonard. That he is able to see his family.  

 13.43 - voice-over text 11
Chaplain Ronald Pettigrew has witnessed many difficult moments at the hospital in Germany. But the image that haunts him the most is that of the man who lost the use of both arms and legs in an attack.

14.00 quote Ronald Pettigrew - chaplain

Gods blessing to you.

14.01 quote Leonard Day

Thank you, sir.

14.02 quote Ronald Pettigrew - chaplain

I called his wife on the phone and in the process of calling his wife on the phone he couldn't talk. So I would be calling for him. He would be saying things like: ‘I love you' to his wife. Or ‘I'm sorry'. I would say all those things. When I put down the phone I was already choked up seeing those two people that loved eachother.

14.29 quote Ronald Pettigrew - chaplain

Those are the hardest things. Sometimes when they don't ask you the question, but you just see them trying their best to make sense or recognizing other people's love. Those are the most humbling things. When people ask me a lot of questions and I don't answer. I can back away from that or give that over to God. But it's those people that you see have given everything. You want to give more to and you just don't know how. You kind of like break down in tears with them. Those are the hardest things.