Warriors…in Their Own Words
by the LOOC Foundation [www.looc.org], narrated by Kelsey Grammer, 84 minutes, 2008, $19.99.
Warriors is a tribute to the warrior ethos through often-powerful interviews with veterans of American wars, from World War II to the present. The documentary tracks the wartime experiences of more than a dozen men, tackling such topics as honor, heroism, service, sacrifice, courage and killing. Their stories cut to the heart of what it means to be a warrior, to sacrifice one’s personal desires for the greater good. These soldiers are the self-avowed sheepdogs of society, who serve out of a sense of duty and not for recompense or notoriety. Interspersed throughout are documentary film clips, as well as quotes from such time-honored Americans as George Washington, Thomas Paine, Ulysses S. Grant and George Patton. The DVD closes with an apt observation from John Stuart Mill: “The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.”
Originally published in the December 2008 issue of Military History. To subscribe, click here.