Why does the media never show soldiers with my injuries?

Question

I am a severly wounded Iraq veteran. I was involved in a point blank range suicide bomber attack which left me with a severe brain injury and lost half my skull. I also have shrapnel in my spinal cord and my R arm was severly damaged, but not amputed though. I always see the "special reports" on TV about wounded soldiers and they NEVER show anything about the guys like me. They always showcase amputees. Not that I'm saying they don't have a hard time. But you can't make a prosthetic for your brain. I sometimes wish that I would've just lost a limb instead, would be easier in my opinion. I know this makes me sound like a whiny "oh why dont I get my spot in the limelight?" But it just bugs me that no one ever reports the struggles that many other guys I know that have similar injuries. The one thing that was showcased was Bob Woodruff, he had similar injuries, but it was only a blip in the coverage of wounded soldiers.

Answer 1

Watch 'In Their Boots' online (it's also interactive thru web-cam and IM)

Here's the L.A. Times article about it:

http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-et-...

and here's their Site:

http://intheirboots.com/

it's good

Answer 2

Thank you for your service my friend. As a Viet Nam combat vet, !967-1968, 101rst Airborne, I will try to explain. We of the Nam generation call them Chicken Hawks, because they support war but won't fight, or send their children. The powerful and rich, are the starters of war. Then, they send other's youth. We the poor, or patriotic, do not start or look for wars. No one wants to know or see damaged vets like you. Because that means the war is not so righteous, and clean. Regardless of the reasons these idiots send us to war, the powers to be do not want the masses upset and not support their war. So they don't show the ugly of war. Remember someone said, "War is h**l." But that person was wrong, because h**l is for the guilty, not the innocent.

Answer 3

I'm sorry for your injuries, and thank you for your service and sacrifice.  

The administration/media make a point of not showing the real cost of the war, avoiding the disturbing injuries (instead choosing to show people who are "coping bravely" with their injuries), and especially not showing the deaths.  

You know, of course, it is illegal to photograph the coffins returning from the war?

Answer 4

I'm guessing the injuries are less common. Therefore less known about.

Not many people lose half their dome and live to tell about it.

Answer 5

I just did a google search and multiple articles appeared about brain injuries and war veterans.

Answer 6

Thank you for your service.  We appreciate what you do and hope that we can do a story about troop casualties with the justice and completion that it deserves.

The answer varies and it all depends on the news organization covering you.  I would guess that most of the time, the answer would be that your injuries are far too graphic for most audiences.  It's for the same reason that most of the time, you never see dead U.S. soldiers on the news...we are aware that it happens and it is awful, but showing it would do little more than obtain shock value.  

However, depending on the story and the news organization doing it, your injury type may be shown.

Bob Woodruff was shown because he was not a soldier, but an anchor/reporter and a rather famous one at that (he would have been the World News host had his injuries not occurred).  There was simply no way around that one.  The story focused as much on him as much as it did the injury.