National Endowment for the Arts
The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the feder ...
–
Department of Defense
The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD, or DOD) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government charged with coordinating and supervising the six U.S. armed services: the Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, Space Force, ...
therapeutic writing program for returning war veterans. It resulted in a book and television documentary.
Program beginnings
In 2004, bestselling authors traveled to U.S. military bases all over the world, looking for literary talent on behalf of the National Endowment for the Arts. These authors, including
Tom Clancy
Thomas Leo Clancy Jr. (April 12, 1947 – October 1, 2013) was an American novelist. He is best known for his technically detailed espionage and military science, military-science storylines set during and after the Cold War. Seventeen of ...
and
Brad Pitt
William Bradley Pitt (born December 18, 1963) is an American actor and film producer. In a Brad Pitt filmography, film career spanning more than thirty years, Pitt has received list of awards and nominations received by Brad Pitt, numerous a ...
, held 50 on-base workshops for American troops and their families, inspiring them to write about their experiences since
9/11
The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...
. The troops and their families responded with more than 10,000 pages of submissions.
Book
Select short stories, essays, journal entries, poems, e-mails and photographs were collected into an anthology called ''Operation Homecoming: Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Home Front, in the Words of U.S. Troops and Their Families'', published by
Random House
Random House is an imprint and publishing group of Penguin Random House. Founded in 1927 by businessmen Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer as an imprint of Modern Library, it quickly overtook Modern Library as the parent imprint. Over the foll ...
.
The NEA initiative, funded by
The Boeing Company
The Boeing Company, or simply Boeing (), is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and product support s ...
, is the first book of its kind, giving a rare voice to U.S. troops and their families - unfiltered and firsthand accounts of what it's like to serve during wartime.
Through ''Operation Homecoming'', these writers take us on convoys and patrols; to hospitals, flight decks, tarmacs and tents; into their homes as they wait for their loved ones to return.
With personal details and honest language, they show us the fear and rushing of heading into combat, the humor and boredom of daily life on the front lines, their relationships with Iraqis and Afghans, happy reunions at home, and mourning those who made the ultimate sacrifice.
A panel of celebrated authors, guided by historian
Andrew Carroll
Andrew Carroll (born September 27, 1969) is an American author, editor, playwright, public speaker, nonprofit executive, and historian.
Carroll is known as the editor of the ''New York Times'' best sellers ''Letters of a Nation'', No stories were excluded based on point of view; the book is largely apolitical and delivers an insider's look at what it means to be at war.
Before becoming editor of ''Operation Homecoming'', Carroll had edited several bestselling and critically acclaimed books, and founded The Legacy Project. Random House launched ''Operation Homecoming'' on September 12, 2006, at the
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...
. Proceeds from the anthology will bring arts and cultural programming to U.S. military communities.
PBS
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...
on April 16, 2007, as part of the PBS series ''
America at a Crossroads
''America at a Crossroads'' is a documentary miniseries concerning the issues facing the United States as related to the War on Terrorism. It originally aired on PBS.
The miniseries initially consisted of 11 independently produced ''aired'' ep ...
''. The documentary was nominated by the
International Documentary Association
International Documentary Association (IDA), founded in 1982, is a non-profit 501(c)(3) that promotes nonfiction filmmakers, and is dedicated to increasing public awareness for the documentary genre. Their major program areas are: Advocacy, Film ...
for best feature.
On November 19, 2007, the film was named by the
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS, often pronounced ; also known as simply the Academy or the Motion Picture Academy) is a professional honorary organization in Beverly Hills, California, U.S., with the stated goal of adva ...
as one of 15 films on its documentary feature Oscar shortlist. On January 22, 2008, ''Operation Homecoming'' was named by the
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS, often pronounced ; also known as simply the Academy or the Motion Picture Academy) is a professional honorary organization in Beverly Hills, California, U.S., with the stated goal of adva ...
*Excerpts of ''Operation Homecoming'' were featured in the June 12, 2006 issue of ''
The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a reporter for ''The New York T ...
''.
*''Operation Homecoming'' received a positive review in the September 10, 2006 edition of ''
The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...
'', with critics noting that "after so much journalism, history, punditry and blogviating, much of what these unknown amateur scribes -- troops in Afghanistan and Iraq, and members of their families -- have to say about the personal experience of war is fresh and intimate..."
*
ABC News ABC News most commonly refers to:
* ABC News (Australia), a national news service of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation
* ABC News (United States), a news-gathering and broadcasting division of the American Broadcasting Company
ABC News may a ...
featured the book in an October 8, 2006 broadcast called “The Pain of War in Black and White.”
Internet Archive
The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...