The Long Road Home (2017) s01e09 Episode Script

(HELICOPTER ROTORS).
MARTHA: Viewing Baghdad from a Blackhawk helicopter has been a constant for me over the years.
Every time I've come here to report on the war, I've had soldiers and marines by my side.
Been with them on the front lines.
Flown home with flag-draped coffins at my fingertips.
But it's the story of "Black Sunday" the story that inspired The Long Road Home that has stayed with me to this day.
19 men ambushed, pinned down in an alley, lost rescue squads risking their lives to find them.
TROY: There is one distinct point and that is when our vehicle gets stuck that I made peace with it, that there's a chance that I may not make it out of here today.
There's no way you probably thought you were getting off the roof that night.
I did not.
I did not at all.
MARTHA: The warriors of the 2-5 Cav have been part of my life since 2004, survivors of a brutal fight that changed all of them forever.
It has been a longer road home than any of us ever imagined.
I'll probably never be the person I was when I left.
It's always gonna be with me.
- I'm as close to home as I'm gonna get.
- So you're home? (EXPLOSION) MARTHA: The American invasion in 2003 had been so swift, so seemingly complete.
BUSH: The United States and our allies have prevailed.
MARTHA: Less than a year later violence still flared but rarely in Sadr City.
The 2-5 Cav thought peacekeeping and reconstruction would be its principle mission.
He was extremely optimistic, you know.
I think most of the guys thought they were gonna go over there and, you know, win the war in, like, ten minutes.
MARTHA: Amber Aguero's husband Shane was a platoon leader leaving his young family for the first time.
For many of the soldiers it was their first time marching off to war, the first time they had to kiss their wives and children goodbye.
For Captain Troy Denomy it was especially hard.
His wife Gina had given birth to their son Merrick just three days before Troy shipped off to Iraq.
I remember saying to him, "We're going to be fine.
Nobody's gonna let anything happen to us so you can't worry about us.
" MARTHA: Robert Miltenberger was a seasoned staff sergeant set to retire when the stop-loss notice came, requiring him to instead deploy with his unit.
We're talking two, three weeks before retirement, all paperwork's in, everything.
He comes home one day, "Guess what?" MARTHA: The commander of these men was Lieutenant Colonel Gary Volesky.
His wife, Leann, once in the army herself, now on the home front with six-year-old son Alex, just counting the days.
We thought it was going to be a rebuilding, reconstruction mission for our guys.
MARTHA: And there was a lot of rebuild.
Sadr City, a sprawling Baghdad slum of 2,000,000 predominantly Shia Iraqis.
The 2-5 Cav was slated to take over responsibility for the area on April 4th just days after arriving in Iraq.
The Shias of Sadr City had suffered terribly under Saddam Hussein, leaving the Americans to believe the US invasion was welcomed.
But despite the relative calm there were signs the Americans could be in for trouble.
(SPEAKING IN ARABIC).
MARTHA: A radical young Shia cleric named Muqtada al-Sadr was firing up resentment of the US occupation.
And his militia, the Mahdi army Was ready to be unleashed Just as the 2-5 Cav rolled in.
In a dusty sparse room at their base in the summer of 2004, the soldiers took me through their harrowing tale.
We had constant gunfire from the roof, the alleys, everywhere.
MARTHA: And on a drive through the still dangerous streets of Sadr City they showed where it all began.
(CHANTING IN ARABIC) The crowds chanting, "Long live al-Sadr.
" It was this alley, this rooftop where things got very bad.
On April 4th it was supposed to be a routine patrol, a platoon led by Lieutenant Shane Aguero providing security for sewage trucks.
About 100 meters past the intersection we heard some small arms fire so we stopped, got out of our vehicles and we heard a second burst.
Oh, yeah, it was gunfire so we got everybody around on the other side of our vehicle to locate, you know, where it was coming from.
The fire came from the right hand side of the street and the left and from the front and the rear.
MARTHA: At nearby Camp War Eagle the new battalion commander Lieutenant Colonel Gary Volesky was just taking over when he heard the radio call.
We hear he's made direct fire contact and he's in contact with enemy forces that are shooting at him.
My gunner gets hit and he falls from the turret inside.
MARTHA: The gunner, Eddie Chen, was 31 years old.
My translator, Salam, he's in the back seat and I tell Salam to do first aid.
MARTHA: But it was futile.
Eddie Chen was dead.
Several others were wounded, two of four Humvees damaged and disabled, the soldiers looking for cover.
We gotta get out of here; we gotta get off this road.
There was just bullets just hitting everywhere, you know, little sparks and tufts of dirt on the actual asphalt and there's an alleyway just sitting right there.
I just pointed at the alleyway, was like, "That alleyway, go.
" There's a black door just off to our left and it's on a three-story building.
It's the tallest building that was there.
MARTHA: Soldiers took up positions on the roof while an Iraqi family huddled inside.
Sergeant First Class Jerry Swope remained down in the alley on the radio in one of the two remaining Humvees, the only point of contact with rescue teams.
This is our one place to sit there to be, alright, make the best of it what we can so we kept the guns firing down the alley.
MARTHA: The platoon was part of the 2-5 Cav's Charlie Company.
I called my executive officer, told him just to start getting everything that could move ready to go and everybody ready to fight.
MARTHA: As rescue teams poured into the city to find the lost men, they were met with withering gunfire.
The enemy had grown tenfold.
It was multiple rounds, constantly, and I remember looking at the street and you'd see the rounds that were missing, it would just impact on the street and it kind of looked like rain when it hits puddles and it was kinda hitting all over the place and this is where we start receiving a few casualties in the convoy that I'm leading in.
Two guys got wounded.
My XO had been riding with me.
He was behind me.
He had also been wounded at this point and I had too.
MARTHA: It's no wonder.
The 2-5 Cav had left most of their heavy armor stateside so they rolled out into battle in anything they could find.
We started heading into town, down the far so, west road.
You can't - No, no, no.
- Open bed truck.
- Oh, you're in a You're oh, you're in the truck? - Yes.
- Oh.
Yeah, an open truck.
With, uh, 17 other people.
MARTHA: This photograph captured how vulnerable Miltenberger's truck was that day, his men coming under fire the second they entered the city just like the ones now fleeing.
And we see the Charlie Company truck just like the one we were riding in, rode down the road to us, four flat tires Engine on fire (SIGHS).
Full of wounded.
Okay, I won't go in detail like they did on our report.
MARTHA: That was the first time I had ever seen a soldier cry and I couldn't help thinking in that moment of his family and all their families because 7,000 miles away back at Fort Hood it was Palm Sunday and their loved ones were enjoying their last moments of ignorant bliss.
Gina Denomy was home with her newborn and a close friend.
I was actually with another army wife and we were getting ready to go to dinner with a third army wife for her birthday.
MARTHA: Belinda Miltenberger was with family at her grandmother's in Louisiana.
We was over at her house that day 'cause it was the day after her birthday.
Doing nothing, you know, being with family.
MARTHA: They were about to get punched in the gut.
We were just pulling out of the driveway when Leann had made the phone call.
MARTHA: There would be many phone calls because back in Iraq the heavy gunfire and mounting casualties had forced rescuers to turn back but they were mounting up again, willing to die to save their brothers.
I knew they were going right back in and I said, "You know, those are our soldiers and, you know, we're not leaving them behind.
" (INAUDIBLE RADIO).
MARTHA: With the platoon still pinned down in the alley, rescue teams struggling to find them and facing fierce attacks from enemy fighters, survival was no guarantee.
The enemy knew that we were obviously there.
They see two Humvees that are destroyed in the street.
They saw us run in the alleyway.
So they start coming at us.
So all you had to do was just aim your weapon down the alley and fire and you're gonna hit somebody.
And they start throwing hand grenades.
Most of them explode on the roofs of the buildings that's off to our north but apparently one came over and hit me in the Kevlar and exploded and that wasn't good.
So now I'm deaf and I can't walk all that well.
MARTHA: They were desperate to get out but the returning Charlie Company rescuers were once again under constant fire.
We continued down Silver fighting the whole way.
Someone asked, you know, "How many explosions did you see right after this?" And it was, you know, almost undescribable.
It was probably one every five seconds from an RPG or a pipe bomb or an IED that they had in place.
It was probably the loudest thing I've ever heard.
- And constant.
- Totally constant.
ROBERT: I get the first casualty.
Guy right next to me got hit.
So I did a quick assessment.
He had a gunshot wound to his arm.
I said, "You're good.
Keep firing.
" He said he couldn't move.
So I said, "Okay, just lay there.
" And we continue on down the road about another 50 feet and he starts spitting blood on me.
So I knew it was worse than that.
I had one soldier, he kept saying, "I'm paralyzed, I'm paralyzed.
" I said, "No, you're not.
No, you're not.
Everybody's just laying on you.
" There was nobody laying on him.
MARTHA: It was a simple compassionate lie to help the injured soldier avoid shock and there were so many wounded.
Back at Camp War Eagle they were overwhelming the small aid station and Captain David Mathias who until then had only treated the children of the soldiers back home.
I'm a pediatrician and so this isn't my standard fare and so it was shocking at first to see these battle wounds that you sort of read about in books and I guess, the best word I can come up with is it was just like a tidal wave.
I mean, dozens at a time would come in.
MARTHA: Back on that rooftop the soldiers tried in vain to signal their location.
So Sergeant Bourquin decides it's a good idea if he makes a fire so in order to keep the fire going, they took their sleeves off and throw more stuff on the fire.
MARTHA: Charlie Company could not hear, their antennas shot off and radios damaged, they rolled right by the alley.
A second company, Alpha Company's rescue attempt also turned back under brutal fire.
Finally a massive tank company came up the road.
First tank goes by and we're throwing things at it.
I'm trying to get on the radio, "Hey, man, y'all need to stop.
Stop, man, we're off your left.
Stop.
" MARTHA: Desperate Shane Aguero ran towards the tanks with a flashlight.
And then finally the last tank stopped.
MARTHA: And with the tanks the platoon had the power to scare the enemy away.
But as happy as these soldiers were to get out of that alley, I know they were all brought back to the reality of that moment when they had to bring Eddie Chen out and place his body gently on that tank.
Back home again in Fort Hood, word of the tragedy began to spread.
It started with Connie Abrams, the wife of Colonel Robert Abrams, Lieutenant Colonel Volesky's brigade commander.
I got the phone call at about 12:45 Sunday afternoon telling me that we had had at the time four KIAs and had over 35 wounded.
MARTHA: KIA, Killed In Action.
Connie called me.
First thing, my heart just dropped.
She said, "Yeah, four KIAs.
" Your legs just kinda go weak.
You just I mean, it's just an unbelievable feeling of fear, not knowing, you know, who's hurt, who's no longer with us.
And then as the day progressed we learned that we were up to six KIAs.
It was very hard and you didn't know if it was your husband or one of your friends' husbands.
Then, yeah, seven KIAs and over 40 wounded.
MARTHA: The final toll for the night would be more than 60 wounded, eight dead, most of them from the rescue squads.
Specialist Robert Arsiaga, Specialist Ahmed Cason, Sergeant Eddie Chen, Specialist Israel Garza, Specialist Stephen Hiller, Corporal Forest Jostes, Sergeant Michael Mitchell and Specialist Casey Sheehan.
Most of them in their 20s.
I made those families a promise before I left that everybody getting on that plane would be coming back home with me and I've broken that promise and I'll live that live with that loss.
MARTHA: For the families the pain of that loss never going away.
We got a knock at the door and I made my sister-in-law, Melody, go and answer the door And when she turned that corner I knew what was waiting for me.
And I just kept thinking, "No.
" I said, "No, it's not my Israel.
" MARTHA: For those who survived the battle it was just the beginning.
Staff Sergeant Miltenberger was awarded the Silver Star for his lifesaving actions that day.
Beside him Sergeant First Class Jerry Swope, honored as well for staying on the radio the entire time in that alley.
Uncommon valor was common that day.
MARTHA: But that day was only the first for the 2-5 Cav.
The insurgency that erupted led to 80 days of full-on combat and then after a lull, another 60.
The soldiers in this battalion have seen tremendous changes in Sadr City in the last few months but the changes have not come easily.
I returned to Sadr City just as the deployment was coming to an end.
After all the fighting, Lieutenant Colonel Volesky showed me that progress was finally underway.
Hello.
Hello.
MARTHA: But the shadow of April 4th was still heavy and there were hints then that the road home, the road that started in that alley, would be longer than any of us ever thought.
Are there haunting memories? Um I think they're haunting, real haunting.
It's like I just replay the thing in my head.
Yeah.
I don't know why.
MARTHA: The trauma of that day not easily forgotten but a connection born that would forever remain.
I don't think the bonds that they've made here with their fellow soldiers will ever break.
I understand now what it means when you go to a veterans' ceremony and you see the old veterans get together and hug and cry and you never really understood it.
I understand it now.
MARTHA: And the bonds forged in war both on the battlefield and the home front would be tested, strengthened as the soldiers returned to the US from combat, the first of what would be many steps on the journey home.
- I love you, Daddy.
- I love you too, bud.
MARTHA: It was an iconic moment.
Families of soldiers returning home from war lined the parade grounds.
- Do you see your Dad? - Yeah.
He's on the buses.
MARTHA: But the joy at Fort Hood was tempered by the knowledge that 168 soldiers from the First Cavalry Division including 14 from the 2-5 Cav didn't make it home.
Across the field the returning soldiers fell into formation, Lieutenant Colonel Volesky at the lead.
Can you see Daddy now? MARTHA: It was torture for the waiting families but finally Ladies and Gentlemen, this concludes our welcome home ceremony.
Oh, I'm so glad you're home, honey.
- I love you, Daddy.
- I love you too, bud.
MARTHA: The soldiers were home from Sadr City and it was easy to think the story ended there.
But as some continued their army careers and others chose to leave the service, the question for them all remained, "What would be harder?" Going to war or coming home? I think when you're in a conflict and you're in a war zone and in a battle and talking about it, you don't really think about what comes next.
I didn't realize how that day in the alley in Sadr City would stay with them forever.
Robert Miltenberger finally retired after he returned but the future he and his wife Belinda had planned in southern Louisiana was upended.
Their home was destroyed by Hurricane Rita less than a year later.
It was a little two-bedroom.
It was - About 1,200 square feet.
- 1,200.
MARTHA: Visiting them at their FEMA trailer, I found the emotions from war swirling more powerfully than any storm.
One of the few items they took with them when they fled? Robert's Silver Star.
I'll show you my Silver Star.
I don't tell people I got a Silver Star.
My wife tells them.
I don't tell them.
What do you say when they ask about it? Yeah, I got one.
- End of conversation.
- Yeah, end of conversation.
MARTHA: He didn't feel he deserved it.
A common refrain from those who serve.
Always quiet, Robert never even really told his wife, Belinda, about what happened, the things he did, the lives he saved.
He sits emotionless when she speaks of his pain.
Physically he's okay but how is this gonna affect the rest of his life? How do I help him? MARTHA: Diagnosed with PTSD, what haunted Robert was that merciful lie he told that wounded soldier, telling him he wasn't paralyzed when in fact he was.
But also that he himself hadn't been injured.
I feel guilty 'cause I wasn't shot too.
Yeah.
I didn't get hurt.
I'll think about what I could have did better, what we could have did different to make it the outcome better.
Salam aleikum.
(SPEAKING IN ARABIC) MARTHA: And for those who continue to serve, the battle of April 4th still weighed on them as well.
If I'd have done something differently, could these great men still be serving our nation and with their families? IEDs yesterday, they had a VBID that went off.
MARTHA: After a second year in Baghdad and then a year back home, Volesky returned to Iraq once again in 2009, this time in Mosul, commanding a brigade with 5,000 soldiers.
The idea of home is complicated.
The army is Volesky's other home, his soldier's family.
But it was hard to leave his real family once again, his son Alex growing up without him.
He always makes me smile, 'cause he says, "Well, Dad, you go over there and you help those people, Dad, and I'll wait for you back here so.
" "I'll take care of things at home.
" Yeah, roger that.
Yeah.
Martha's a friend of the Cav and has been for a long time so she's coming out here, she's got some history with brother Aguero and me.
We always seem just too kind of be here sometime that she is.
Alright, let's go, let's mount up.
- Hey.
- I know.
- Pretty fantastic.
- The two of you together again.
Yeah.
Can you believe it? MARTHA: It was easy to see the bond between the two of them, unbroken even after all the separate deployments.
By March of 2009 now Captain Shane Aguero had been overseas more than 40 months.
Tell me how many significant events you've missed at home? Christmases Well, pretty much all of them for the last four years, almost five.
Why was it worth it for you personally? I'm a soldier.
That's what I do.
I go where I'm told to go.
I answer the call.
MARTHA: Answering the call, that was what brought Robert Miltenberger to Portland, Oregon nearly a decade after he saved the lives of his fellow wounded soldiers in the back of that truck.
Again it was that lie that haunted him.
That one soldier he kept saying, "I'm paralyzed.
I'm paralyzed.
" I said, "No, you're not.
No, you're not.
Everybody's just laying on you.
" There was nobody laying on him.
MARTHA: And after a decade he wanted to see that soldier, Tomas Young.
After being paralyzed by a bullet in the back of that truck, Tomas became active in the anti-war movement.
His health later deteriorated badly, leaving him bedridden.
But together with his wife Claudia they had built a cozy quiet life in Portland and Tomas too wanted to meet with Robert for the first time since he was injured.
I'm trying to keep the emotions down because I don't know what to expect but I'm kinda excited.
Nervous.
That's about it.
ALL: Hello.
- Please come in.
- Thank you.
So.
- Straight back and to the right.
- Okay.
MARTHA: The meeting between the two men was quiet, awkward and tentative.
You said you felt like you lied to me.
Well, I did.
I lied to you but that was Army days.
No, you was trying to keep my spirits up.
- Oh, yeah.
- You didn't lie to me.
- Hi, Tomas.
- Hi.
It's very good to see you and thanks for doing this.
It's very good to bring these lovely people here to see you both.
Yeah.
How do you feel about this reunion and what will it mean to you? It turned out better than I thought.
I expected the worst.
- Aw.
- Oh, yeah.
- Aw.
- He was scared to death.
Yeah.
And you thought you were gonna walk in here and he'd say, "It's your fault?" No.
Pull a gun out from underneath the thing and shoot me.
- Aw.
- Oh, no.
Did you really think that? No.
That's how deep that goes? Why would he shoot you? I just think the worst, every time, any situation.
MARTHA: That comment stopped me dead.
I knew Robert's pain was deep but this was the depth of the ocean and I was certain it was because Robert hoped Tomas would shoot him and end his pain for good.
He's become one of my heroes and I have the deepest and utmost respect for Robert Miltenberger.
- Says you're a hero.
- Mm.
Nope.
Just doing my job.
This is never gonna go away for you, is it? Oh, no.
I don't think it goes away for any of them.
MARTHA: Tomas Young died a year after our visit, the wound sustained in Sadr City finally carrying him away.
It was one small private reunion.
Other bigger gatherings awaited, time only strengthening the bonds that connected them all in both joy and sorrow.
Oh, what's going on? - And how are you there? - What's up, man? MARTHA: The band of brothers and sisters together again.
It doesn't really seem like ten years.
Seems like a lifetime ago and then you walk in here and it seems like yesterday.
MARTHA: At the tenth anniversary the soldiers looked like veterans I have seen from other wars, older, softer.
What do you remember most about that day? Um disbelief, I guess.
MARTHA: Some still served while others had hung up their uniforms but the bond remained the same.
Good seeing everybody.
That's the best thing, seeing a lot of people I haven't seen forever.
MARTHA: And included in that bond the loved ones of those who died that day.
How old was he? - 25.
- Does it seem like ten years? No, ma'am, not at all.
MARTHA: But in that decade much had changed and much had not.
When I first met some of these men it was the first time I had seen soldiers cry.
Say a word of prayer.
MARTHA: I saw it again that day.
Our God, we come together as brothers, as people who've been through the unthinkable We're grateful In your name we pray, Amen.
What was going through your mind right then? Desperately wishing we could have brought everybody back.
Troy, you lost the first soldier on April 4th.
It was Yeah, Sergeant Chen.
I've paid many respects to him and begged for forgiveness but I think Why do you say, begged for forgiveness? Well, it's so it's family, right? You lose part of your family.
I know in my head that's not anything I could have done to prevent that.
That doesn't make it easy.
MARTHA: Fighting that sense of guilt is a hard pain-filled road every combat veteran understands.
What would you say to them about how to get through it? Get help.
You can lie to everybody else but that guy you're looking at in the mirror? He knows you're hurting.
After Afghanistan that was the first time I went and got help.
You know, I just didn't want to be that guy that was jumping 'cause of backfires or, you know, yelling at my kid.
I don't wanna be mean Dad or mean husband.
I still want to, you know, enjoy my family.
MARTHA: These soldiers I had met ten years earlier on Sadr City had become the veterans Gary Volesky once told me about.
I understand now what it means when you got to a veterans' ceremony and you see the old veterans get together and hug and cry and you never really understood it.
I understand it now.
MARTHA: And I had begun to understand it as well.
I kept in touch with many of these men and their families, witnessing the twists and turns of each individual journey on the long road home.
Of all the people in that battle that day, all the couples, I have seen Gina and Troy Denomy the most because they have been based near Washington, DC in the area where I live.
Home of the brave.
- Come on in.
- Hello.
- Hey, how are you? - Hey, how are you? Wow.
- You look good.
- It's all, it's Troy had left for Iraq days after their first son Merrick was born.
- Merrick's right behind you.
- Hey, buddy.
MERRICK: Hi.
- How are you? - Good.
How are you? MARTHA: He's a teenager now with a younger brother, Luke.
Did you know your Dad had been shot? MERRICK: I did.
I just didn't know the full story of how.
It's kind of breathtaking, like, that my Dad and that he's here still.
That makes me proud.
MARTHA: Troy still serves our country.
He now works at the Pentagon and was recently promoted to Colonel.
Who were you before April 4th? I think somewhat more idealistic to a degree.
You know, up until that point in my career I'd never been shot at.
Nobody tried to kill me.
That experience changes you a little bit.
For me part of what I've done, right, wrong or indifferent, is put things a little bit in boxes, from a coping perspective.
GINA: I think no matter what, when somebody goes through that experience that they can't come back the exact same person.
There's no way.
But as far as us and our family, like, he came back as Troy.
Like, to us he hasn't changed.
TROY: I think that I've hopefully become a better father and better husband but also a better soldier and a better officer because of that too.
So you're home? I've been thinking about that question, right, and it's how do we define home? I think home largely for me is family based so for that answer, absolutely I'm home.
I think there's really no explanation why some people seem to just carry on and others really struggle.
Why some seem to have no difficulty and others are just stuck in that day? ERIC: This really has replaced the army for me.
The fish are just HVTs, high value targets.
MARTHA: I get to go fishing with Eric Bourquin today.
Eric was 23 years old when he was on a rooftop fighting for his life, fighting for the lives of the soldiers he was with.
I love him.
I love him like a brother, like a son.
Yo.
- Howdy.
- You ready to catch that monster? Your entire reputation is on the line as a fisherman.
I'm aware.
MARTHA: Eric is out of the army now, a full time Dad.
- Okay, that was impressive.
- Alright, all the traps are set.
Okay.
Now we're fishing.
- Now we're fishing.
- And this is where it all gets better? Yes, it is.
There is a big part of you that's still on that roof.
There's a part of me that's on that roof but it's not the defining moment of me.
I'm a very lucky, lucky individual.
I'm only breathing because eight other people, you know, sacrificed their lives coming out to make sure they could try and rescue you.
Me and all the guys are out there trapped on the roof.
I don't wanna cheapen that or waste it by just staying there and not moving past it.
In ways has it made you a better person? Made me more resilient, for sure.
It's shown me that, you know, I can persevere through pretty much anything.
If I ask you how long a road home it has been for you Roads never end, you know.
So at least until I'm in the ground.
MARTHA: After a day on the lake, Eric and I make our way to the home he shares with his wife and four young children.
It's there that he keeps memories of April 4th buried in plastic bins.
Yeah, that's the helmet I was wearing.
The one without the sleeve.
Oh, this is, you ripped the sleeves off Yeah.
To start the fire so the helicopters could find you.
- Yeah.
- That's incredible.
- That's Chen's.
- That's Chen's? - Yeah.
This is stuff off his uniform.
- Oh, wow.
Eddie Chen had been Eric's barrack's mate in the army.
Yeah, I've been lugging that round for a while.
Is that hard to look? Yeah, honestly it is but I've looked at it quite a bit.
It's doesn't get any easier.
It just externally it gets easier.
MARTHA: As we go through the gear and flip through photos, Eric remains stoic.
Here's the first thing I wrote.
MARTHA: But then we get to the report he wrote right after the battle.
"I jumped out of the truck, started to return fire.
I noticed that north of our position there was a man with a rifle standing behind" You can read it if you want.
Pretty powerful.
- Yeah.
- Okay.
I feel protective, for all the fisherman bluster, there is a fragility just below the surface, a fragility I respect.
Perhaps for Eric and the others finding the road home means walking all the way back to the alley where it all began.
Action.
MARTHA: 13 years after the warriors of the 2-5 Cav fought for their lives in Iraq, Sadr City rose once again.
This time in the Texas heat and dust of Fort Hood, the buildings and roads constructed for the National Geographic mini-series, The Long Road Home.
The set became another way station on the journey back.
For the soldiers Just when you thought you were done putting wires up - Put up more.
- Put up more.
MARTHA: Their families This is just extraordinary.
And for me.
We're going on a live movie set.
We can't take any pictures.
MARTHA: On the anniversary of the battle, Eric Bourquin, a technical advisor on the set, brought us all back to the alley.
These should be basically a match to the real buildings right here.
MARTHA: The word the soldiers used most often was, "Surreal.
" Even I found myself walking around with the heightened senses I had in Baghdad, expecting a bomb to go off.
CARL: I was on that side over there and there was a guy MARTHA: It was an especially emotional day for Carl Wild.
He was the one who took those haunting photos up on the roof back in 2004.
I took everybody's picture, kind of thinking that somebody would find our camera and the families would get that last picture because nobody thought we were getting off that rooftop alive.
Any time I'm struggling and I feel like I can't go on, I think about the guys who died, especially Chen and how they gave me their gave their lives so I could live and that's what's pushed me to move back out into the world and do something.
I don't wanna be one of the guys who wastes their lives.
No.
So Thank you.
It was unnerving to be on that roof.
And then I look over and down the alleyway.
I'm like, "There, the black door.
" MARTHA: And men couldn't help but reminisce about the hours that had changed their lives.
And then the last time was after I got hit with a grenade and I shot my foot.
I made it to about right there.
MARTHA: Shane is still serving.
He hopes to retire soon.
Five deployments, 65 months away from home, has taken its toll.
Really am a completely different person now and I don't really like it.
- What don't you like? - Exceptionally angry.
Paranoid.
Negative.
MARTHA: Shane has gotten help.
I saw a different far more open Shane Aguero than I had in the past.
Honestly, Shane, I'm surprised by your candor.
Thank you.
It's a good thing, it's a good thing.
April 4th was a very bad day.
It's the day I turned from a warrior into a veteran.
Now I need to become more than that.
MARTHA: Also visiting the set were family members of the fallen.
This is what Robert saw, that day? MARTHA: I worried about how seeing the circumstances of their son or husband's death portrayed so vividly would affect them.
It's so hard.
Tell me what the hardest part is today.
Just feeling the emotions again.
MARTHA: For the actors on set, the real stars were the soldiers.
General, how are you? Hey, it's great to see you.
How are you? - What a pleasure this is.
- No, the pleasure's mine.
MARTHA: But even Gary Volesky got a kick out of meeting Michael Kelly, the actor tasked to play him.
You know the first picture I saw with this? I was like, "Holy cow.
" MARTHA: Volesky was a Lieutenant Colonel when we first met.
He is now a Three Star General.
He now heads the army's First Corps out of Joint Base Lewis McChord, 40,000 soldiers now part of his army family.
Tell me how you cope with all that you've been through.
I got a strong faith.
You know, Leann is just a rock.
- What is home to you? - Home's not a location anymore.
Home's where Leann and Alex are.
MARTHA: Alex, that boy who was six years old when Volesky first went to Sadr City - I love you, Daddy.
- I love you too, bud.
Is now nearly six feet tall and away at college.
- Jeremy Sisto.
- It's an honor, sir.
I'm Jeremy Sisto.
I'm playing Robert Miltenberger.
You've got a big role to play.
He's a great American.
A real great American.
- Hear that.
- He's got a special place in my heart.
You playing a guy that's a real hero.
Pleasure.
- Okay.
- Perfect.
This area that we're approaching now, these two buildings are actual to Sadr City, the architecture has been replicated.
That building, that building, that building.
Then you've got another one over here by the mosque.
Yeah.
MARTHA: Volesky's hero, Robert Miltenberger, seemed energized on set, taking it all in with executive producer Mikko Alanne.
Yeah, the smell we couldn't replicate.
Oh, you actually burned a car for the scene? Yeah.
We have your LMTV here.
As a staff sergeant you're entitled to be inside the cab but you chose to be in the back.
I always thought if I wouldn't do it, I wouldn't expect my soldiers to do it.
That's probably why I got in the back.
Yeah.
MARTHA: On the night of his visit, Tomas Young's mother arrived unexpectedly.
I'm gonna do it.
MARTHA: She wanted to meet Robert and say thank you for saving her son and giving her ten more years with him.
- Thank you.
- You're welcome.
Oh, I'm so glad to meet you.
Oh, this is hard.
- I just stayed here for you.
- Thank you.
You gave us so much.
You don't know.
You don't know.
MARTHA: And a few months later, checking in with the Miltenbergers in Louisiana, I wanted to know if meeting Tomas Young's mother had helped.
BELINDA: Come on in.
Thank you.
When you think about Young do you still Do I still feel guilty? - Yeah.
- Yes.
Why? - Because I lied to him.
- And you can't get past that? You can't say, "I saved his life and helped him not go into shock?" No.
And Tomas saying to you, "You saved my life, I understand it, you're my hero?" - Yeah, that - You hate that hero stuff, don't you? Yeah, I do.
MARTHA: There is happy news on the horizon.
They're about to be grandparents.
Our son, him and his wife are expecting a baby in March.
- And it is a baby - Girl.
MARTHA: Robert works on an oil rig and is getting help from the VA for his PTSD.
He said that talking about what happened with me, with others, has helped.
Little burden off me, little burden, each time.
- You're doing well, Robert.
- I know.
The bond that these soldiers have, the bond that these families have, the bond that I have with them, after 13 years is extraordinary.
It makes me a better person.
It gives me comfort, for them, for our country, for all the young men and women who will follow in their footsteps.