The elite Combat Rescue members of the U.S. Air Force, Pararescuemen, or PJs, have one mission: rescue American or Allied forces in extreme danger. Whether their targets are shot down or isolated behind enemy lines, surrounded, engaged, wounded, or captured by the enemy, PJs will do whatever necessary to bring those in peril home.
From Oscar and 16-time Emmy-winning Arnold Shapiro Productions…For the men who fought perhaps the fiercest battle of WWII, 70 years have passed. But the memories of those 36 bloody days on Iwo Jima have not. In the spring of 2015, survivors from both sides of the battle returned for the last time to join a Reunion of Honor - a unique, now-peaceful fellowship first forged of fire and bullets. IWO JIMA: From Combat to Comrades takes viewers inside riveting dual stories: the iconic battle and this historic reunion as former warriors set foot together on the black sands of Iwo Jima. Their unforgettable journey was documented by two film crews. The American unit followed three US survivors while the Japanese crew documented the only Japanese survivor able make the arduous trip to Iwo Jima. The captivating film travels back in time to 1945 when these men first met. 90,000 combatants on an eight-square mile island. A dot in the Pacific Ocean just 650 miles from Tokyo. 28,000 men died either defending or taking this rock. Now, in 2015, men who lost so much make the emotional pilgrimage back to face the defining moment of their lives.
What is it like to be a soldier who goes to war to heal? Lt. Diane Carlson Evans, who served as a nurse in Vietnam, responds, "Think of having a plane crash every day." This gritty program presents the history of the modern medic while tracking a class of prospective corpsmen training to earn the nickname "Doc" at the Navy’s Field Medical School. Archival photos and rare film footage document hard-minded innovations of medical expediency from the Civil War to today, such as triage, field hospitals, and prosthetics. Pararescuemen and combat medics who served in Vietnam and Somalia talk about their experiences.