 | | Privates participate in basic training in Fort Jackson, S.C.Leslye Davis/The New York Times |
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0By Leslye Davis and Catrin Einhorn |
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We did not set out to make a feature-length film about Master Sgt. Brian Eisch and his family. What propelled us onward — through a decade of documenting their lives — was the story itself, full of more twists and turns, joy and tragedy than we could have imagined. |
Sergeant Eisch does not consider his family remarkable: “I would think that our family is a typical American family,” he said in 2015. “The kids are without their parent while they’re at war. The only difference is they didn’t have a mom in their life.” |
But their openness and generosity in letting us into their home with video cameras and microphones resulted in a film that provides a window into the sacrifices of military families. |
We met the Eisches in 2010, when The New York Times set out to follow a battalion of soldiers that was part of President Barack Obama’s troop “surge” of more than 30,000 U.S. service members deployed to Afghanistan. The war was already in its ninth year, and President Obama was trying to bring it to a swift end. It was a pivotal moment, but the American public seemed fatigued by news of the conflict. We sought to draw them in by telling personal narratives of individual soldiers in the First Battalion, 87th Infantry Regiment. |
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One story stood out to us. Joey and Isaac were just 7 and 12 when their single father sent them to live with their uncle for a year while he deployed to Kunduz, Afghanistan. |
Until then, Sergeant Eisch had been in the Army for nearly 17 years with no combat deployments. He figured he kept getting training orders because his command knew he was a single dad. Still, his career was stalling. He wanted to go to war, and he thought the boys were old enough. He asked about moving to a line unit, and suddenly he was on his way to Fort Drum. |
When the time came to leave the boys with their uncle in Wisconsin, the consequences of his request came into sharp relief. “I question myself every day if I’m doing the right thing for my kids,” Sergeant Eisch said while visiting the boys on mid-tour leave. “Am I raising them right? I’m trying to do my duty to my country and deploy, and do what Uncle Sam asks me to do. But what’s everybody asking my boys to do? What are they supposed to do?” |
The boys — who hadn’t seen their mother for years after she lost custody — were deeply pained by the absence of their only parent. Joey didn’t know where to channel his anger, which often got him in trouble at his new school, where he was suspended for fighting. Isaac worked hard to maintain the tough and helpful attitude he thought a soldier’s kid should have. “‘Sometimes I try to think about different things,” he said in 2010. “If I think about my dad, it’s hard to stay strong.’ |
 | | The filmmakers Catrin Einhorn (left) and Leslye Davis on a shoot for the film in 2017. |
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Shortly after returning to Afghanistan, Sergeant Eisch was wounded in a firefight while trying to rescue a member of the Afghan National Police. After that, filming his recovery revealed a phenomenon facing many soldiers when they come home from war: how the meaning that comes from serving your country can rub painfully against a lack of purpose when that service ends. |
With “Father Soldier Son,” the documentary we produced from the decade we spent filming the Eisches, we sought to illuminate the quiet, often overlooked repercussions of a war that now spans at least two generations, affecting the more than 775,000 U.S. troops who have served in Afghanistan, as well as their families. |
We hope the film will prompt viewers to consider their own ideas about military service, patriotism, the search for identity and what it means to be a man in America today. |
| Leslye Davis and Catrin Einhorn are journalists at The New York Times who directed and produced the new documentary film “Father Soldier Son,” now streaming on Netflix. |
 | | Foroozan was released early from Herat Women’s Prison in western Afghanistan because of the novel coronavirus.Kiana Hayeri for The New York Times |
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Foroozan was one of as many as 20 women incarcerated in Herat Women’s Prison for killing their husbands. Some of these inmates have now been freed, after Afghanistan’s president, Ashraf Ghani, ordered the release of thousands of prisoners — mostly women, juveniles and sick people — to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus. “I am given a second chance to live,” Foroozan said. [Read the article.] |
Beyond the World War II We Know |
 | | Corporations received tax breaks for promoting the war efforts to consumers.Library of Congress |
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Jennifer Steinhauer recounts the history of victory gardens and some of the misconceptions of how they emerged after the United States joined the conflict. “Americans like to portray that they worked hard and would have starved had they not gardened,” said Allan M. Winkler, a distinguished emeritus professor of history at Miami University of Ohio. “Victory gardens were a symbol of abundance and doing it yourself, but that was more symbolism than reality.” [Read the article.] |
The Afghan War Casualty Report: July 2020 |
 | | A man who was injured when a truck bomb exploded receiving medical treatment at a hospital in Kandahar on July 8.Muhammad Sadiq/EPA, via Shutterstock |
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At least 137 pro-government forces and 51 civilians have been killed in Afghanistan in July so far. [Read the report.] |
Here are four articles from The Times that you might have missed. |
 | | Marines transferring the remains of Staff Sgt. Christopher K.A. Slutman, who was killed in Afghanistan, last year at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware.Patrick Semansky/Associated Press |
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“The heartache would be terrible.” Americans are still fighting in Afghanistan, and they are still dying. In 2019, these three Marines were among 22 Americans lost in a long-forgotten war. [Read the article.] |
“It unleashed a whole new class of destruction.” The 75th anniversary of what’s known as the Trinity explosion, the world’s first nuclear weapon test, comes as tensions over nuclear devices intensify. [Read the article.] |
How America forged a powerful Army before Pearl Harbor. Paul Dickson’s new book “The Rise of the G.I. Army, 1940-1941” recounts the remarkable story of how the United States built its Army from scratch before World War II. [Read the review.] |
“We know that the Russians are involved.” The recent assessment that Russia paid bounties to the insurgents to attack U.S. troops stunned many, but officials said the Kremlin’s outreach began almost a decade ago. [Read the article.] |
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