Transcript
NATHAN FITCH: In Micronesia you can see the symbols of military service everywhere. There's American flags and veteran bumper stickers so it was interesting. All the places in Micronesia that I've been I've seen very clear symbols of American military service very clearly displayed in the culture and the society and I think that in Kosrae, almost every family would have at least one family member in the military.
SALLY ROUND: Is it for financial reasons that they want to join, that there are so many who want to join up?
NF: I think it's a complicated question and that's partly why it merited being a feature length documentary versus short. I mean I think a part of it is historical. I think there's a generation of soldiers who are in the military now who remember World War Two and the stories they heard about it. In fact I was doing a screening in Washington DC for the US government and we were fortunate to have some Micronesian soldiers as part of the Q and A and the question came up why they enlisted and one of them told the story of how his grandmother had been killed, beheaded actually, in one of the first bombings of the island during World War Two and then when the island was liberated by the Americans there was this tremendous sense of gratitude and I think there's this sense that the US is this benevolent, powerful country that's sort of looking over Micronesia and has its best interests at heart so that also goes to the culture in the way people perceive power and the way the Americans kind of arrived in the islands, kind of set them up to be the new protectors in a way as they came with all this weaponry and food. They had all this canned food that they were really generous with. But I think you're absolutely right. I think the economics of it are undeniable. Enlisted infantry men or women in the US Army, you can make as much as the governor of some of these islands. On the island of Kosrae which I filmed on, at 18 with a high school diploma, you can automatically be vaulted into that kind of pay grade in a society where anyone who's making a salary is also supporting probably a large extended family.
SR: The film also illustrates, though, the hardships that people have, don't they, when they leave the army and go back home because they don't receive the same benefits of soldiers in the military in the US?
NF: Correct. I mean I think the hardship, the benefits is one part of it. It's hard to come back to a small Pacific island nation after, you know, some of the people I talked to spent 20, more than 20 years in the US military so I think there's that automatic adjustment period but on top of that some of the people I've interviewed have deployed five or six times to active warzones and come back with physical or invisible but clear trauma that they've accumulated from that process of fighting and, as you've mentioned, the vast majority of the benefits that they would be entitled to as US veterans are simply not extended to the islands so some of the soldiers who come back with physical or mental issues such as PTSD can potentially get some support but would have to fly themselves many thousands of miles and pay very expensive plane tickets if they were going to get themselves to somewhere like Guam or Hawaii and even if they get themselves to Guam the healthcare there is not that great either so there's a bunch of benefits that just aren't extended and that includes a lot of important things like home loans, caregiver programmes and you just see this disconnect where it's really difficult when the islanders get back to try to navigate the VA system like one of the characters in my film, the mother, her son was killed in Afghanistan and she's been trying for years to get the social security benefits that she should be entitled to and it's hard for grieving families and soldiers who come back with trauma. There's just not a lot of information about how to help them in the islands because this is all very new and they don't have a lot of experience with therapy or with anything that could help them.
SR: Is anything beig done or has your film raised awareness?
NF: Well you know I went back and screened it in Pohnpei and Kosrae and the US ambassador was at the screening and did a Q and A and when the question of benefits came up, the answer was that it was an oversight, not a deliberate decision, not a deliberate act which I can't say anything about. I have no idea how it happened, but that this film, that Island Soldier could potentially help change that and get the US to provide more benefits to veterans in Micronesia, that's heartening that maybe the project can help.
