| When I Came Home | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | Dan Lohaus |
Release date | 2006 |
Running time | 70m |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
When I Came Home is a 2006 documentary by Dan Lohaus about homeless veterans in the United States - from those who served in Vietnam to those returning from the Iraq War. The film won the "New York Loves Film Best Documentary" Award at the 2006 Tribeca Film Festival.
The film looks at the challenges faced by returning combat veterans and the battle many must fight against the Veterans Administration for the benefits promised to them. Through the story of Herold Noel, an Iraq War veteran suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and living out of his car in Brooklyn, it reveals a failing system and the veteran's struggle to survive after returning from war. The film reports that as of March 2006, 500 Iraq War veterans are homeless.
In addition to Noel, Paul Rieckhoff the Executive Director and Founder of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA), makes several appearances in the film. [1] Rachel Maddow and Chuck D, talk radio hosts of the Air America Radio network, also make a brief appearances in the film.
The United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is a Cabinet-level executive branch department of the federal government charged with providing life-long healthcare services to eligible military veterans at the 170 VA medical centers and outpatient clinics located throughout the country. Non-healthcare benefits include disability compensation, vocational rehabilitation, education assistance, home loans, and life insurance. The VA also provides burial and memorial benefits to eligible veterans and family members at 135 national cemeteries.
John Richard Pilger is an Australian journalist, writer, scholar, and documentary filmmaker. He has been mainly based in Britain since 1962. He is also currently Visiting Professor at Cornell University in New York.
Three Kings is a 1999 war comedy film written and directed by David O. Russell from a story by John Ridley. It stars George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg, Ice Cube, and Spike Jonze as four American soldiers on a gold heist that takes place during the 1991 uprisings in Iraq against Saddam Hussein following the end of the Gulf War.
A veteran is a person who has significant experience and expertise in a particular occupation or field. A military veteran is a person who is no longer serving in a military.
William Scott Ritter Jr. is a former United States Marine Corps intelligence officer and convicted sex offender. He served with the United Nations implementing arms control treaties, with General Norman Schwarzkopf in the Persian Gulf during Operation Desert Storm, and in Iraq, overseeing the disarmament of weapons of mass destruction (WMD), as a United Nations weapons inspector, from 1991 to 1998. He later became a critic of United States foreign policy in the Middle East. Following a 2011 law enforcement sting operation, he was convicted of unlawful contact with a minor and five other charges that resulted in two years of incarceration.
Camilo Ernesto Mejía is a Nicaraguan who left the United States Army during the Iraq War on conscientious objector grounds, was convicted of desertion and went on to become an anti-war activist. He is also the son of Carlos Mejia Godoy, Nicaragua songwriter.
The content of the 2004 documentary film Fahrenheit 9/11 generated controversy before, during, and after its release a few months prior to the 2004 U.S. presidential election. The film, directed by Michael Moore, criticizes the Bush administration's attempt to pursue Osama bin Laden in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, as well as the Iraq War. Although Fahrenheit 9/11 was generally praised by film critics and won various awards, Bush defenders and several other commentators criticized the film for inconsistencies, lack of context and for being made available online for free download.
'Why We Fight' is a 2005 documentary film by Eugene Jarecki about the military–industrial complex. The title refers to the World War II-era eponymous propaganda films commissioned by the U.S. Government to justify their decision to enter the war against the Axis Powers.
Embedded journalism refers to news reporters being attached to military units involved in armed conflicts. While the term could be applied to many historical interactions between journalists and military personnel, it first came to be used in the media coverage of the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The United States military responded to pressure from the country's news media who were disappointed by the level of access granted during the 1991 Gulf War and the 2001 U.S. invasion of Afghanistan.
Paul (P.J.) Rieckhoff is an American writer, social entrepreneur, activist and veteran of the United States Army and the Iraq War. He is the president of Righteous Media Inc and the host of the Independent Americans podcast. Prior to that, he was the founder, CEO and executive director of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA), a non-partisan non-profit founded in 2004. He served as an Army first lieutenant and infantry rifle platoon leader in Iraq from 2003 through 2004. Rieckhoff was released from the Army National Guard in 2007. He is also the Karl Lowenstein Distinguished Visiting Lecturer in the Political Science Department at Amherst College, where he designed and taught a class on the 20th anniversary of 9/11, titled Understanding 9/11.
Lawrence B.Wilkerson is a retired United States Army Colonel and former chief of staff to United States Secretary of State Colin Powell. Since the end of his military career, Wilkerson has criticized many aspects of the Iraq War, including his own preparation of Powell's presentation to the UN, as well as other aspects of American policy in the Middle East.
Aaron Glantz is a Peabody Award-winning radio, print and television journalist who produces public interest stories. His reporting has sparked more than a dozen Congressional hearings, a raft of federal legislation and led to criminal probes by the Drug Enforcement Administration, the FBI and the Federal Trade Commission. Because of his reporting, 500,000 fewer U.S. military veterans face long waits for disability compensation, while 100,000 fewer veterans are prescribed highly addictive narcotics by the government.
No End in Sight is a 2007 American documentary film about the American occupation of Iraq. The directorial debut of Academy Award-winning documentary filmmaker Charles Ferguson, it premiered on January 22, 2007, at the Sundance Film Festival and opened in its first two theaters in the United States on July 27, 2007. By December of that year, it had a theatrical gross of $1.4 million. The film was nominated for Best Documentary Feature at the 80th Academy Awards.
Sergeant First Class Jorge A. Otero Barreto, a.k.a. "the Puerto Rican Rambo" and "Sergeant Rock", is a former United States Army soldier. He earned 38 military decorations during his career, and has been called the most decorated U.S. soldier of the Vietnam War. He has received recognition from numerous organizations and has had buildings named after him. He is also the main subject of Brave Lords, a documentary about the Puerto Rican experience in the war in Vietnam.
In Their Boots is a documentary series about the impact the War in Iraq and the War in Afghanistan are having on people at home in the United States. Every episode features a documentary about how the servicemen and women of the American armed forces, their families, and American communities have been changed by the nation's campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan. The show has covered issues such as the effects of deployment, post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury, recovery from physical injury, military widows, partners of gays in the military, homelessness, women in the military, and sexual assault in the military. In 2010, In Their Boots launched Operation In Their Boots, which gave 5 combat veterans the opportunity to produce and direct their own documentaries.
Daniel Leonard Bernardi is a Professor of Cinema at San Francisco State University, founder and President of El Dorado Films and Commander in the United States Navy Reserve. Bernardi earned a Bachelor of Arts in Radio-TV (1984) and a Masters of Arts in Media Arts (1988) from the University of Arizona. He went on to earn a PhD in Film and Television Studies from UCLA (1994). He completed a University of California postdoctoral research fellowship in 1997.
Ryan Allen Conklin is a former Sergeant in the United States Army, known as a cast member on the MTV reality television series, The Real World: Brooklyn, and star of The Real World Presents: Return to Duty, a 2009 documentary that chronicled his second tour of duty serving as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom, and author of the Iraq War memoir, An Angel From Hell.
Chris Noel is a retired American actress and entertainer. Noel is best known for her appearances in beach party movies in the 1960s, and for her work on the Armed Forces Radio And Television Service as the "Voice of Vietnam". A popular pin-up girl of the era, Noel made frequent visits to troops, and was at risk many times, she was shot down two times in the helicopters she was riding. She hosted the radio program A Date With Chris, one of Armed Forces Radio's most popular shows.
Homeless veterans are persons who have served in the armed forces who are homeless or living without access to secure and appropriate accommodation.
After young African-American men volunteered to fight against the Central Powers, during World War I, many of them returned home but rather than being rewarded for their military service, they were subjected to discrimination and racism by the citizens and the government. Labor shortages in essential industries caused a massive migration of southern African- Americans to northern cities leading to a wide-spread emergency of segregation in the north and the regeneration of the Ku Klux Klan. For many African-American veterans, as well as the majority of the African-Americans in the United States, the times which followed the war were fraught with challenges similar to those they faced overseas. Discrimination and segregation were at the forefront of everyday life, but most prevalent in schools, public revenues, and housing. Although members of different races whom had fought in World War 1 believed that military service was a fair price worth paying in exchange for equal citizenship, this was not the case for African-Americans. The decades following the World War 1 would include blatant acts of racism and nationally recognized events which conveyed society's portrayal of African-Americans as 2nd class citizens. Although the United States had just won The Great War in 1918, the fight for national equal rights was just beginning. This article focuses on African Americans who were lynched after World War I.
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