Fort Hood Sentinel (Fort Hood, Tex.), Vol. 75, No. 13, Ed. 1 Thursday, March 30, 2017 Page: 6 of 24
twenty four pages : ill.View a full description of this newspaper.
Extracted Text
The following text was automatically extracted from the image on this page using optical character recognition software:
www.FortHoodSentinel.com
NEWS
A6
March 30, 2017
Home: Story is a tribute to veterans,
Families
Continued from Al
■
I
Brain: Art therapy effective for TBI patients
Continued from Al
6L
u
- Dr. Scott Engle
v!
These results
are a function
of our warriors’
commitment, the
support of their
spouses and Family
and the care of our
incredibly dedicated
staff who bring their
best every day
ABOVE, Military vehicles and containers sit on the set of Camp War Eagle. RIGHT, A production
team member walks along an alleyway that plays a pivotal role in the storyline of “The Long Road
Home.” Construction of replicas of the buildings found in Sadr City has been ongoing.
a
never
Carl R. Darnall Army Medical Center’s Chief of Medicine, Lt. Col. Karin Nich-
olson, learns about craft kits from Daniel Scott during Intrepid Spirit Center’s
March 24 open house to increase brain injury awareness.
-
on building facades. Buildings are
close together, with brightly col-
ored fabric in the windows and
tangles of electrical wires running
across the facades, representative
of the houses and businesses that
crowd the narrow streets and alley-
ways of Sadr City.
“We worked hard to make it
rough and unfinished,” Reed said.
As construction of those sets
continues, actors portraying the
1st Cav. Div. Soldiers in the film
are undergoing boot camp train-
ing from Soldiers, learning how
c ■
- i
Besides the Creative Forces Ini-
tiative, NEA’s decade of collabora-
tion with Department of Defense
includes creative writing work-
shops, performing arts programs,
the Blue Star Museum’s military
appreciation program and grant
funding for veterans-centered pro-
grams.
“Sometimes it is difficult for our
warriors to put into words their
wartime experiences,” Engle said,
adding that art is a perfect avenue
to allow for freedom of expression,
a point stressed by Bivens.
Bivens said he became a believer
in the healing power of the arts
after discussions with leaders in art
programs and witnessing how cre-
ative arts, especially art and music
therapy, became a pathway for
Soldiers to communicate and share
their wartime experiences.
“I think the arts are so natural
for healing,” he said, “and what I
have discovered in the arts, par-
ticularly in the National Spirit
Centers, is that art is a way for our
Soldiers to figure out, self-select
and maybe get back home.”
depression and post-traumatic stress.
“These results are a function of
our warriors’ commitment, the
support of their spouses and Fam-
ily and the care of our incredibly
dedicated staff who bring their best
every day,” Engle said.
Since the center’s 2016 open-
ing, in addition to physical and
occupational therapists, the center
has nearly doubled its staff size
adding a speech pathologist, an art
therapist, a chiropractor, a neuro-
optometrist, a massage therapist
and an acupuncture specialist to
its array of services supporting its
readiness platform “to rehabili-
tate, reclaim, redirect and rede-
pioy.”
The open house, held in honor
of March’s National Brain Injury
involved with the project “added a
level of authenticity.”
Sets representing Camp War
Eagle and Sadr City have been con-
structed on a Fort Hood training
area for the filming.
Production designer Seth Reed
conceived the Iraq sets off of videos
and photographs from Camp War
Eagle and Sadr City. He also incor-
porated architectural aspects from
trips to Jordan and Morocco, since
he was unable to travel to Iraq.
Construction included a lot of
unfinished and exposed concrete
________I IaI________________________________________________________________I
Photos by Gloria Montgomery, CRDAMC Public Affairs
TOP, Ret. Brig. Gen. Nolen Bivens discusses the importance of arts in the heal-
ing process of fractured Soldiers with traumatic brain injuries and PTS during
Intrepid Spirit Center’s March 24 open house. ABOVE, Maj. Gen. Paul Funk
tries his hand at punching the dots during Intrepid Spirit Center’s March 24
open house to increase brain injury awareness.
Dramatic license was discussed
with each person being portrayed
and permission was given to take
that license, Alanne said.
Meeting the real people and the
Families of those lost on April 4,
2004, has been touching to all of
those involved with the project.
“Meeting them was heart
wrenching,” Medavoy said. “I want
to share their stories with the rest of
the world.”
Family members of the Soldiers
are key to the story and Medavoy
and Alanne took care to keep their
experiences authentic, as well.
Filming of the Families’ side of
the story is ongoing across Fort
Hood, including in housing and at
chapels.
Alanne said showing the sacrifice
that military Families make was
important and telling that side of
the story inspired him.
“The struggles of military Fami-
lies are invisible to most of the
country,” he said. “The Families are
so brave. It’s been inspiring.”
It was also paraount to the pro-
duction team that the project was
filmed at Fort Hood, where the
Soldiers and Families lived.
“It’s important to show where it
happens and show what military
life is like,” Alanne said.
At its heart, the story is one of
Family and war. Medavoy said the
project is a tribute to Soldiers, vet-
erans and their Families.
“It’s about the sacrifice they make
for all of us,” he said. “That is what
this is all about.”
Awareness Month, featured dis-
plays, therapy and equipment dem-
onstrations.
This year’s theme was “Inte-
grating Arts in the Healing Pro-
cess” and featured guest speaker
Ret. Brig. Gen. Nolen Bivens, who
serves as the military community
advisor for the National Endow-
ment of the Arts Military Healing
Art’s Creative Forces program.
This past year, Intrepid Spirit
Center added arts to the heal-
ing equation by collaborating
with NEA’s Endowment Creative
Forces Initiative, which “serves
the unique and special needs of
military patients and veterans who
have been diagnosed with trau-
matic brain injury and psycho-
logical health conditions, as well as
their Families and caregivers.”
According to NEA, “Creative
Forces places creative arts thera-
pies at the core of patient-centered
care in military medical facilities
and makes community arts pro-
gramming available in the states
or regions where clinical sites are
operating.”
_______________________________________________<_____
Photos by Seth Reed, Production Designer, “The Long Road Home”
Production team members discuss construction of a building along Route Delta at a Fort Hood training area. The build-
ings shown in the National Geographic miniseries are replicas of the buildings found in Sadr City, Iraq, and were created
from the images in photos and videos shared by Soldiers and Martha Raddatz, author of “The Long Road Home.”
to move, shoot and communicate,
as well as learning more about the
actual Soldiers themselves.
“Our actors are incredibly com-
mitted and have done lots of
research,” Alanne said, adding that
many asked to meet the real-life
person they are portraying.
When casting the roles, Alanne
was looking for actors with heart,
not swagger.
“I tried to match actors with
the emotional truths,” he said. “It’s
intimidating to portray real peo-
ple.”
Having not only those who were
there, but also Fort Hood enmeshed
in the project has been key.
“We felt from the beginning that
they would be our guides in this
process,” Alanne said.
Originally planned as a three-
hour feature film, Medavoy and
Alanne agreed that the story fit well
as an eight-part miniseries.
Medavoy said the long for-
mat helps tell more about those
involved and their experiences.
“It’s a great way of telling the
story,” he said.
Alanne wrote each hour-long
segment in the series centered on
themes such as faith, fate and valor,
Medavoy added.
“This is such an astonishingly
intimate portrait of every man
Soldiers,” Alanne said. “This is
side to war audiences have
seen.”
For both Alanne and Medavoy,
authenticity in presenting this story
was paramount.
“We have tried to be as faithful as
possible to the book,” Medavoy said,
noting that the nature of presenting
the story on TV through actors does
require some dramatic license.
Everything from the set designs
to hiring Soldiers who were there
on the ground in Sadr City on
April 4, 2004, and filming at Fort
Hood, was done deliberately
Alanne said having Eric Bourquin
and Aaron Fowler, two Soldiers
involved in the Sadr City battle,
Upcoming Pages
Here’s what’s next.
Search Inside
This issue can be searched. Note: Results may vary based on the legibility of text within the document.
Tools / Downloads
Get a copy of this page or view the extracted text.
Citing and Sharing
Basic information for referencing this web page. We also provide extended guidance on usage rights, references, copying or embedding.
Reference the current page of this Newspaper.
Pruden, Todd. Fort Hood Sentinel (Fort Hood, Tex.), Vol. 75, No. 13, Ed. 1 Thursday, March 30, 2017, newspaper, March 30, 2017; Fort Hood, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1204890/m1/6/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Casey Memorial Library.