When I Came Home

This documentary from 2006 shows the dark side of war for returning American veterans. Filmed in a large city, the film follows an Iraq War veteran who, with nowhere else to go, is living in his car, suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome. He comes from a background of little hope and so did what many inner-city youth have done: signed up to join the military and learn skills they can use at home, along with receiving a steady paycheck and the option to attend school on the government's tab. But, like so many others, he is unable to use the education benefit promised him until he is able to negotiate his familiar world with a new and unfamiliar disability that affects everything in his life - PTSD.

He makes dozens of telephone calls a day to Veterans Assistance for help with housing and his PTSD, and he visits numerous offices in person. The answers, if one can call them that, are the same: If he wants help, he cannot be homeless. Yet, in order to not be homeless he would have to live in an overcrowded, unsafe shelter with his young family. He refuses to do this, and his wife has left him to live with her family.

The film uncovers a deep and growing trend among our returning Iraq soldiers, a trend that America has seen before during and after the Vietnam War: the abandonment of our heroes who risk their lives to keep us safe at home. When they return, no one - including their own government who sent them into battle - is willing to treat him and give him what was promised. Taking a frank and startling look at one of a rapidly growing number of Iraq soldiers who are returning with PTSD and living on the streets due to inadequate or unavailable treatment programs,

Number of files: 1
Run time: 58 minutes
Video codec: xvid, 768 kbps, 640x480, 30 fps
Audio codec: mp3, 96 kbps, 44 kHz, mono, cbr
Source: DVD (NTSC, 16x9)