DCoE Conference Hosts Award-Winning Documentary Screening, Discussion with Film's Featured Service Members

By Robyn Mincher, DCoE Communications on February 23, 2011

“Everything else in life becomes different after you go through an experience like that. When I came home, I broke down. I couldn’t even tie my own shoes. I had no one to talk to about it - we’re not trained to talk about it.”

--Brendan O’Byrne, of the 503rd Infantry Regiment of the 2nd Platoon, B Company, 2nd Battalion, 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat team stationed in Afghanistan’s Korengal Valley. The valley was named “the deadliest place on earth,” in 2007 by CNN.

O’Byrne’s experience in combat is captured on camera in the National Geographic award-winning documentary Restrepo, screened recently at DCoE’s third Warrior Resilience Conference. Within the film’s first few minutes, an improvised explosive device explodes underneath the platoon’s vehicle—an example of the intense cross-fires that were a daily occurrence. The film, directed by American journalist Sebastian Junger and British photojournalist Tim Hetherington, follows 15 men from 2nd Platoon, including Sgt. Aron Hijar, as they build an outpost in the middle of the night, deep in the Korengal Valley—from the ground up. The platoon names the outpost “O.P. Restrepo” after their 20-year-old charismatic medic Pfc. Juan “Doc” Restrepo is killed in action.

Following the screening, O’Byrne and Hijar shared their personal accounts of their journey, and touching upon what could be considered a theme of the conference, messages of hope for those coping with psychological health concerns post-deployment.

“We want everyone to understand that there is life after war,” said Hijar. “The initial reaction may be negative, but we have to build off of that. As soldiers, you can’t let it stop you in your tracks.”

O’Byrne emphasized the need for pre-deployment psychological training to avoid issues with stigma.

“I thought, ‘I can take apart my M4 [rifle] blindfolded, but what do I say to my team when one of my friends gets killed?’” said O’Byrne. “There has to be some kind of training before combat, and then we can say ‘that did happen’ without being labeled as anything besides a warrior.”

The film was referenced and recommended by many speakers throughout the two-day conference as a real-life look inside hard duty.

“Who’s helping my son in the Korengal Valley?” asked Army Lt. Gen. Frank Kearney, a keynote address speaker whose own son, Maj. Dan Kearney, the 2nd Platoon leader featured in the film.

“There’s a culture of breaking you down and trying to build you up,” said Lt. Gen. Kearney. “We have to change this culture, start in basic training and get people to start getting invested in the soldier, not just the equipment.”

The necessity of early psychological training coming from command was reflected by Hijar, who also cited peer-support as a resource for helping manage post-deployment concerns.

“It [help] can’t just come from a therapist. Lessons can be learned from people with boots on the ground,” he said. “This has to be part of training and applied to a unit from day one,” said Hijar.

Learn more about this award-winning documentary at restrepothemovie.com.  This article was sponsored by Military Books.