Documentary offers look at soldiers' lives

When I saw in the Daily Bee that cinematographer Erik Daarstad had chosen his film, “Fighting for Life,” to screen at the Panida’s Little Theater on this Saturday, I recalled a phone call I received a few years ago.

When I answered my phone I heard a familiar voice say, “Hi, it’s me.” The “me” on the line was Erik Daarstad. I asked if he was home. He answered, “No, I am calling from Landstuhl, Germany. I have just come from Balad, Iraq, and I never want to see that place again.”

Since many of you will be seeing the film I thought it would be good to have Erik share why he came to the decision that he never wanted to return to Balad.

Question: Erik, where did you film “Fighting for Life?”

Erik: We filmed at Walter Reed and the National Naval Medical Center in Washington and Bethesda, the Army Hospital in Landstuhl, Germany, and the Air Force Hospital in Balad - one of the major hospitals in Iraq. It was located in the Sunni Triangle where about 80 percent of the guerrilla attacks occur-red. It was a dangerous place and the hospital did have periodic mortar attacks. In fact, the staff of the hospital called the place, Mortaritaville after Jimmy Buffet’s song, Margaritaville. We did have some mortar alerts while we were there filming but that did not stop our work. We followed the lead of the hospital staff and put on our helmets and flak jackets and kept working. I never felt safe during an attack because all we had over our heads was a tent.

Q: How were the patients transported to and from the hospital?

Erik: They were usually flown in by helicopter and flown out on a C141 or C17.

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We went to Iraq

on a C17. It had medical equipment and vehicles down the center and on the sides were the uncomfortable seats for personnel.

When we flew back to Germany from the hospital in Iraq the center was arranged for the wounded and their care - it was a flying Intensive Care Unit.

Q: Do you recall the one thing that had a major emotional impact on you?

Erik: The most troubling thing I experienced was the first time I walked into Ward 57, a large physical therapy unit, at Walter Reed. To see all those young people who were amputees, some triple amputees, was a real shock. Realizing that these young people must live without arms and legs for the rest of their lives makes you examine your attitude toward war. It was an emotional experience I will not forget.

Another negative experience happened the night they brought 21-year-old Chrystal Davis to Balad.

She was driving a truck near Ramadi when an IED (Improvised Explosive Device) blew up and severed her right leg and severely damaged her left leg. A medic stopped the bleeding and she was sent to Balad for surgery.

I knew she was going to go out on our plane and I was hanging around the surgical unit when I glanced through the window where she was and they were cutting off another piece of her leg. That was hard. As one military doctor said, “There’s nothing normal about war. There’s nothing normal about losing a limb or seeing your best friend die.”

Q: What kind of statement do you feel “Fighting for Life” makes?

Erik: For us, “Fighting for Life” is a portrait of the compassion, skill, dedication and bravery of military doctors and nurses, and the courage, dignity and determination of the wounded to survive, to heal, and in the words of Army Specialist Crystal Davis, to “bounce back.”

“Fighting for Life” screens at the Panida’s Little Theater today, Jan. 21, at 2:30 and 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $6 for adults and $5 for students and seniors.