Battle Scars

When the Caskets Start Coming Home

Arti Walker-Peddakotla escaped her controlling parents by joining the peacetime army. She wanted to continue her medical studies. But as her fellow soldiers began to fall in combat after 9/11, someone had to work in the mortuary and "process" their bodies. So day after day, Arti greeted the dead as they returned from Iraq and Afghanistan in alarming numbers.    
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Some firefights and bomb blasts never make the news or the history books, but they’re still incidents that changed the lives of those involved. In each episode, host and former soldier Thom Tran talks to fellow veterans of our recent wars. We hear from a badly burned vet who became a TV star; a medic who says God answered his prayers on the battlefield; and one of the few women soldiers to take an enemy life in action. Thom also shares his memories of fighting in Iraq, where a sniper's bullet came within an inch of killing him. Sometimes raw, often funny, but always arresting.