BALTIMORE — The struggles and challenges veterans face coming home from war is something no one can understand unless they've lived it.
There are tons of movies out there discussing those hardships but what about the success stories?
That's why "Bastard's Road" was created. This movie follows Marine combat veterans Jon Hancock on his 5,800 mile journey across the country.
"He started to visit the Marine Corps brothers he served with in 2004. The Second Battalion Fourth Marines nicknamed "the Magnificent Bastards," had one of the highest casualty rates in the Iraq war," said Brian Morrison, a Balitmore Film Maker.
Brian heard about Jon's walk and was inspired to learn more. He didn't know him before. He didn't have any connection to the military and he never created a documentary before either. He's done plenty of other projects but never a documentary.
"It was just something about his walk that I felt compelled to want to know more," said Morrison.
Turns out Brian and Jon went to Arundel High School and had a mutual friend who introduced the two.
When Brian heard about the walk, Jon was already 1,500 miles in so he didn't waste any time.
"He would send me a GPS pin and I would just track him down with a rental car. Fly into a local airport and just follow these state highways and look for the guy with the big Marine Corp flag on his back and sure enough within 5-10 miles he was there in the middle of no where," explained Morrison.
Jon opened up to Brian on those visits.
"He was just ready talk, ready to share a lot of things and I just felt fortunate to be that person to listen," said Morrison. He added, "he wanted to dig deeper into the challenges and struggles that he was dealing with, that some of his marine brothers were dealing with."
In the documentary you hear some of his Marine brothers talk about their experiences saying:
"I don’t think we’re looked at as patriots or heroes. I think we’re looked at as damaged goods."
"No one else knows what we went through but them."
"I was angry quickly and I didn’t I have any control of where my mind was going."
But the focus of the story wasn't on the struggles it was on overcoming them. Not being victims but survivors.
"His story is about strength and resiliency and hope in light of those challenges that can sometimes be grouped in some dangerous stereotypes and stigmas that all veterans have ptsd and you can never come back which is totally false."
Brian's hope with this film is to encourage people to learn more about what our veteran's deal with. "Let's not forget the guys who made it home... you keep it alive by talking about."
We met up with Morrison at the Camden Yard's Veteran's Memorial because of the special message there: Time will not dim the glory of their deeds.
"You do that by talking about it, by communicating. You do it by sharing stories," said Morrison. And that's exactly what he's doing with his documentary.
The film is about an hour and a half long and can be watched online for just a few bucks.
Learn more here.
