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May 2008
Phil Donahue talks about “Body of War”
By Margo Rutledge Kissell
Staff Writer
DAYTON — Legendary talk show host Phil Donahue has returned to Dayton to present his award-winning documentary, “Body of War” at the Neon theater Friday, May 30.
Donahue, who launched “The Phil Donahue Show” in Dayton in 1967, is executive producer and co-director of “Body of War.”
The feature documentary follows Tomas Young, an Iraq War veteran who was paralyzed by a bullet to the spine during his first week in Iraq.
The film shows Young’s physical and emotional journey as he adapts to his new life and begins to question the decision to go to war in Iraq. It was named Best Documentary by the National Board of Review.
After meeting the 25-year-old Army specialist at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in 2004, Donahue felt compelled to bring his story to the big screen.
“I think this is the most sanitized war of my lifetime,” he said in an interview Friday. “Less than 5 percent of us have sent a primary relative to this war. We don’t see the pain.”
Donahue, 72, said it a drama playing out across this country in thousands of homes “occupied by young people who have come home from this war with hideous injuries.”
Donahue does not appear in the 87-minute film and there is no narrator. In fact, it contains no war footage.
“Nothing goes boom in our film,” he said.
What viewers will see woven throughout the film, however, is footage of what he calls the “superficial, bumper sticker debate” in Congress that led up to the war’s start in March, 2003.
Donahue, an early critic of the war during his talk show on MSNBC in 2002 and 2003, calls it “one of the most tragic errors of judgment ever made by a United States Congress.”
He will answer questions after each of the three screenings at the Neon, 130 E. Fifth St., Friday night.
Tickets are still available for Friday’s 5:10 p.m. screening, but the 7:15 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. shows are sold out.
For more information about other showings, call (937) 222-7469 or visit www.neonmovies.com.
If you see the film, I invite you to post your thoughts about it here.
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Did Bush use “propaganda campaign” to sell Iraq war?
You’ve probably heard that Scott McClellan has penned a book titled, “What happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington’s Culture of Deception.”
In it, the former press secretary says President Bush pushed a “political propaganda campaign” instead of the truth to sell the Iraq war, Associated Press.
The AP reports: “McClellan writes that Bush and his team sold the Iraq war by means of a ‘political propaganda campaign’ in which contradictory evidence was ignored or disregarded, caveats or qualifications to arguments were downplayed or dropped and ‘a dubious al-Qaida connection to Iraq was played up.’ “
Tell us: Do you think about McClellan’s claims?
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Honor Flight helps WWII veterans see their memorial
On May 3, I had the honor of traveling with 65 World War II veterans to Washington, D.C., to see the National World War II Memorial.
The veterans fly there free of charge thanks to Honor Flight.
Retired Air Force Capt. Earl Morse of Enon founded the nonprofit a few years ago to make sure WWII veterans get to see the memorial built in their honor. Because Morse refuses to accept any money from the veterans themselves, the organization relies on generous donations from others to help him accomplish the mission.
The one-day trip was an amazing experience for everyone involved, including me. I have long admired and respected what these men and women in uniform did all those years ago, and how the country pulled together during that difficult war.
But I came away with an even greater appreciation of their sacrifices.
The biggest challenge for me in writing the stories that appear in Sunday’s newspaper and on this web site was having to focus on just a few of the veterans in order to give readers a better sense of who they are and what they did. That was tough because every one of those veterans has an amazing story to tell. Every one of them.
After we returned home, I asked some what the best part of the trip was for them personally. And more than once I heard, “everything.”
It was an unforgettable journey.
I’ll never forget the standing ovation the veterans received after landing at the Baltimore airport and how it brought tears to their eyes.
I’ll never forget the heartfelt, impromptu speech by a young, female Marine major who suddenly found herself in the midst of dozens of World War II veterans as she was commissioning a second lieutenant beside the Iwo Jima Memorial.
I’ll never forget how much this trip meant to Bryan Mason, 42, who accompanied his grandfather, Clifford Stogdill, 92, of Brookville. Both are Navy veterans.
And I’ll never forget the special meeting between Army veteran Robert M. Davis Sr., 86, of North Lewisburg, who took part in the Normandy invasion, and the 76-year-old woman from Maryland who remembered the invasion as a girl growing up in France. And how it freed her county from more than four years of Nazi occupation.
“Thank you very much,” she told Davis.
“You’re welcome,” he responded.
Each one of those moments was made more poignant because they involved a connection between the World War II veterans and other individuals.
And each reminded the veterans in a very personal way that while it’s been more than 60 years since they did their part in the war, their efforts haven’t been forgotten.
That’s what keeps Morse working so hard to bring more veterans to Washington.
“The greatest joy I have in this program is when we come home,” he told me. “We’re on the plane and the sun has set and it’s dark and we’re flying home. I know every veteran on that plane has a personal knowledge of how revered, how cherished and how loved they are by this nation.”
I invite Honor Flight participants — veterans or guardians who were on the May 3 trip or any of the earlier flights — to tell us what the experience meant to YOU.
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Area soldier hit by sniper in Iraq returns to duty
By Margo Rutledge Kissell
Staff Writer
Saturday, May 24, 2008
Army Sgt. Christopher Nealis, a Miami Valley native, is already back at work after being shot by a sniper while serving in Iraq on Sunday, May 18.
“He’s doing OK. He has some damage to his lower leg,” his father, Vernon Nealis of Huber Heights said Friday.
The bullet struck his right calf and was removed at a hospital in Kirkuk.
The shooting occurred about 4 a.m. while the 35-year-old soldier was exercising outside with his unit.
Nealis, a 1992 graduate of the former Park Hills High School in Fairborn, is a senior Army medic with Bravo Company of the 10th Mountain Division, based in Fort Drum, N.Y. He is married with four children.
This is Nealis’ second tour of duty in Iraq. He spent a year in Baghdad until June 2006, then left for the current 15-month tour last September.
It’s also the second time he’s been injured, said his father, a retired Air Force master sergeant.
On his son’s first assignment in Iraq, “a roadside bomb detonated and destroyed the vehicle in front of his up-armored Humvee. Chris was injured and still has a large knot on his spine from the concussion of the event,” Vernon Nealis said.
“His unit tried to evacuate him to Germany at the time for treatment to the wounds received but he refused and stayed at his post because he said they were just too short of combat medic personnel for the patrols going out,” he said.
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Lowe’s offering discount to military folks
Lowe’s has announced it will offer all active, reserve, honorably discharged, and retired military personnel and their immediate family members a 10 percent discount on in-store purchases made during the Memorial Day holiday. The discount is available Thursday, May 22, through Monday, May 26.
The discount is available on in-stock purchases up to $5,000. To qualify, individuals must present a valid military ID or other proof of service such as a VA card, VFW card, Veteran’s ID or discharge papers. Excluded from the discount are on-line sales, previous sales, special order items, installation and delivery fees, extended protection plans, gift cards, select Fisher & Paykel appliances, all Electrolux major kitchen appliances, and John Deere products.
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War documentary coming to Dayton
My colleague, Dave Larsen, filed this report:
Legendary television talk show host Phil Donahue will present his award-winning documentary, “Body of War,” on May 30 at the Neon theater in Dayton.
Donahue, who launched “The Phil Donahue Show” in Dayton, is the executive producer and co-director of “Body of War.”
The feature documentary follows Tomas Young, an Iraq War veteran paralyzed from a bullet to the spine, on a physical and emotional journey as he adapts to his new body and begins to question the decision to go to war in Iraq.
Donahue will attend the film’s local opening on May 30 at the Neon. He will answer audience questions after the 7:15 p.m. screening and introduce the 9:30 p.m. screening.
“Body of War” was named Best Documentary by the National Board of Review. It won the Audience Award at the 2007 Hamptons International Film Festival.
Donahue, a Cleveland native, has won 11 Daytime Emmy Awards, including a Special Recognition Award and a Lifetime Achievement Award.
“The Phil Donahue Show,” also known as “Donahue,” was the first tabloid talk show. The show had a 26-year run in national syndication, preceded by three years of local broadcast in Dayton.
Donahue launched “The Phil Donahue Show” in 1967 on Dayton’s WLWD-TV, which is now WDTN-TV. The show ended its run in 1996.
Donahue also hosted a talk show on MSNBC from 2002-2003. He is married to actress Marlo Thomas.
Tickets for the 7:15 and 9:30 p.m. screenings on May 30 of “Body of War” will go on sale at noon on Saturday, May 17. Tickets are $8 and must be purchased in person at the Neon, 130 E. Fifth St.
For more information, call (937) 222-7469 or visit www.neonmovies.com.
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What do you want U.S. to accomplish in Iraq?
Five years ago today, President Bush stood aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln and declared “major combat operations in Iraq have ended.”
U.S. Rep. John Murtha, chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, spoke at the Center for American Progress Action Fund Thursday on the five-year anniversary of Bush declaring “mission accomplished.”
Murtha said, “1,827 days later, the U.S. occupation of Iraq continues, and our ‘mission’ remains undefined and open-ended.”
“Even today, five years later, this Administration refuses to provide us with reasonable answers to very reasonable questions. First, what are we trying to accomplish in Iraq? And second, what is the United States’ mission there?”
Tell us: What do you want the U.S. to accomplish in Iraq?
