Blog post

Frontline presents an encore presentation of "A Soldier's Heart"
Posted by Tom Tarantino on February 24

By. Ken Dornstien

With the U.S. Army now reporting a record number of suicides - the highest since 1980, when it began tracking the rate - we offer an encore broadcast of "The Soldier's Heart" this Tuesday night (check local listings).

In this emotional, one-hour film--praised by the Chicago Tribune for "exploring in depth the challenges that bedevil even well-meaning counselors, in and out of the military, trying to help returning veterans of the war in Iraq"-- producer Raney Aronson explores the psychological toll of war on combat soldiers who've returned home, and investigates whether the military has been doing enough to help them. 

"This is the most damaging type of war psychiatrically," combat veteran and counselor Jim Dooley tells FRONTLINE. "You have no protection anywhere at all times... And you're also witnessing death at an incredibly close range. When you are finally back here, and you make connection with your safety, which is your family--that's when you begin to vibrate with the fact of where you were."

"Nobody comes back from combat unchanged," a top Defense Department official in charge of mental health tells FRONTLINE. "[Soldiers] will have expectations about what their families are going to be like.  Their families have expectations about what they're going to be like. And the one thing that is absolutely true about all of those expectations is that all of them are going to be wrong."

We hope you'll join us Tuesday night. In the meantime, visit our Web site to sample the report online, read some of the hundreds of letters we've received about the film, and get updates on the soldiers we profiled, and how the military is dealing with this ongoing issue.

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