Aguero is forced to make a choice that scars his platoon for the rest of their lives. It is a blessing that God brought me to his Church while there was stability in other spheres of my life. Watching my parents age over the past few years has been difficult, but the virtues of faith, hope, and charity have helped to sustain me. The climactic final chapter of the eight-part global scripted event series The Long Road Home. The rescuers finally punch through to the stranded platoon, but the battle hasn’t finished taking its toll, both in Sadr City and at Fort Hood. Eight hours and seven minutes after the first shots were fired, the men of the 1st Cavalry Division are reunited, and must cope with the new realities of the war.
Jassim's allegiances are tested; Aguero has to make a choice that scars the platoon forever. But on April 4th, 2004, the Army’s 1st Cavalry Division was ambushed while on patrol in Sadr City, Iraq. Go behind the scenes and on the set of National Geographic’s new scripted series, The Long Road Home, based on the best-selling book by Martha Raddatz. Hear from the real soldiers and families and see how the events of Black Sunday are being brought to life.
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Yet in all this, I count myself blessed to have had the support of those around me. My wife supported me even when I chose to be baptized in a communion other than her own. In spite of our theological differences and misunderstandings, my family has neither abandoned me nor treated me as an outsider.
Yet, it is a great comfort to know that, through them, we all have a beacon to help maintain our focus on the Lord. From cover to cover, I became convinced that Jesus really did give Peter a particular mission and that the foundations of papal authority were there, even if I didn’t understand them completely. I was told that Christians claimed to follow Jesus Christ, but made the grave mistake of worshipping him as God, instead of simply acknowledging him as a prophet. Christians believed some of the same things we believed, but had also invented priests, religious orders, saints, and other elements that distracted from the pure worship of the one true God.
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We attended some for stretches of months, but ultimately moved on, not because we experienced anything negative , but because I never felt any connection to the parish. My mistake, I eventually realized, lay in looking for fulfillment in human community rather than in God himself. Once I became aware of my error, things began to fall into place.
As news breaks, the lives of the soldiers' families at Fort Hood are thrown into chaos and uncertainty. When I started fourth grade, my parents sent me to a private school, which I attended until college. Although not affiliated with any denomination, the school was modeled on an English prototype, and so bore the marks of Anglicanism. Those were expressed primarily in prayers at morning assembly, grace at meals, and chapel services on Friday. Although there was no official promulgation of Christian doctrine, some came through in the hymns we sang.
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Each time, I was moved by the sincerity of the worshipers, regardless of whether or not there was music. The people there clearly wanted to serve God, even if their doctrine was faulty. I noted the charity of their communities and wondered, with a tinge of envy, why I was not allowed to be part of something like that. Tomas Young learns about the realities of war when Miltenberger’s troop comes under fire.
The rescuers finally punch through to the stranded platoon, but the battle hasn't finished taking its toll, both in Sadr City and at Fort Hood. Lt Shane Aguero and his platoon take refuge in a house and set up defensive positions, while at Camp War Eagle, Volesky and Denomy launch a rescue mission to retake the city and free their men. Interpreter Jassim al-Lani’s troubled past is revealed and his allegiances are tested. Tensions rise in the alley house as the insurgents change tactics and force Aguero to make a decision that will scar his platoon forever. Back at Fort Hood, LeAnn and Gina learn about mounting casualties and prepare for the worst. After converting, it was impossible to keep the matter secret from my family forever, and when it came out, strong feelings of betrayal and failure emerged.
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That year, my wife and I enrolled our older daughter at a nearby Episcopal school. However, I discovered very quickly that the Episcopal Church had evolved to embrace moral positions that I found entirely inadmissible. With a diminishing supply of ammunition, Bourquin struggles to signal helicopters in a desperate attempt to get the men out alive. It's the first day on patrol for Task Force Lancer when troops under Lt. Shane Aguero are ambushed during a routine sanitation mission. Staff Sgt. Miltenberger is overcome by a premonition that he will die in Iraq. Prepared for whatever lies ahead, he sits down for what he believes is his last meal.
In the series premiere, a desperate rescue is launched to save an American platoon that's ambushed in Iraq. Based on a true story, this dramatic miniseries relives the heroic fight for survival during the Iraq War, when the 1st Cavalry Division from Fort Hood was ferociously ambushed in Sadr City, Baghdad. And on the home front back in Texas, families await news, fearing the worst. With Aguero out of play and supply of ammunition fast diminishing, Bourquin struggles to signal helicopters in a desperate last-ditch effort to get located, culminating in a climactic final battle.
Casualties mount in the rear of the LMTV, as Denomy tries yet again to rescue the stranded platoon. For Young, this moment marks the beginning of a lifelong struggle, with far-reaching consequences, through which he’ll touch countless lives. Lack of confidence in the religious tradition in which I was raised did not help. For many years, I was in perpetual “evaluation mode” with respect to doctrine, and my mind could not rest. With baptism came the grace of greater trust and — at long last — a sense of peace.
As “People of the Book,” Christians and Jews were not as far removed as pagans — our men were allowed to marry their women — and yet their rejection of the Quran put them definitively outside the fold. Denomy leads the first rescue and faces an overwhelming Iraqi militia. Denomy's mettle is tested when he leads the first rescue into Sadr City under heavy fire; at Fort Hood, Gina Denomy faces challenges of her own as a new leader of the Family Readiness Group and the mother of a newborn. Tap "Sign me up" below to receive our weekly newsletter with updates on movies, TV shows, Rotten Tomatoes podcast and more.
He was rational in a sense that far transcended, but in no way contradicted, our own rationality. There was no trace of the voluntarism characteristic of so much Islamic thought. Although my understanding lacked depth, I can see in hindsight how God was at work in those days, laying the foundations for the faith I hold today. Miltenberger and his men are stranded and in danger as night falls in the city. Back in the US, news of the ambush reaches Miltenberger's family.
I was born in Vancouver, Canada in 1973 and lived there until I started college in 1991. My parents were Muslims, and my religious education began early. When I was about four, my mother taught me to read Arabic script so that I could read the Quran, although at the time neither of us knew the meaning of most of the words. She also taught me about God, emphasizing the importance of faith in Him and how it should shape our actions, so that we could enjoy eternity with Him in Heaven and not end up in the despair of Hell. Most significantly, she reflected the love of God in her manner of living. This convinced me thoroughly of His existence, goodness, and love for us.
As a student, I had studied what interested me most, and I was later privileged to land a position in academia that allowed me to continue doing that. More recently, I have been drawn to the Catholic intellectual tradition and have taken some courses to fortify my understanding of it. The flip side of this experience is that I have come to realize how far the educational system, at all levels, has departed from the pursuit of wisdom and virtue. I sense that I am being called to use my intellectual gifts to address this deficit, although I am not yet sure how. Because I had always believed that God was close and intimately involved in our lives, I had no problem accepting that He could communicate grace through these earthly channels. The distance between my beliefs about Jesus Christ and those of the Church had narrowed to the point that it no longer made sense not to be part of it.
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