McCrabb: Movie hopes to show warriors’ hidden wounds when they return home after war

MIDDLETOWN — You walk into a restaurant and see a broken down gray-haired man wearing a Vietnam veteran baseball cap sitting in a wheelchair.

His left leg is missing, a casualty of his military service.

“War sucks,” you say under your breath.

But if you see a similar man, wearing the same hat, but sitting at a table with all his body parts intact, you may say to him: “Thanks for your service.”

What you may not realize — and what the movie “Trauma Comes Home: The Battle for the Warrior Family” hopes to correct — is that neither soldier may ever be whole again.

The movie, the last of a trilogy from producer Bob Waldrep, will be shown at 7 p.m. Aug. 18 at Berachah Church, 1900 Johns Road, Middletown. The movie is free and open to the public. Registration is required.

“Trauma Comes Home” is more about educating than entertaining, said Stafford Ouderkirk, 74, a retired Air Force veteran from Miamisburg who is helping bring the movie’s premier to Middletown.

It’s not one of those war movies that features Hollywood actors.

Instead the cast includes numerous people who have experienced the gut-wrenching, life-changing pain caused by war. During the 75-minute movie, they talk about the impact of military service trauma on the family and considers the avenues of help available for these family members.

“This is intense realization,” Ouderkirk said of the movie.

One of the cast members is Nicole Condrey, Middletown’s mayor. She talks about how her husband, Ron Condrey, a retiree from the U.S. Navy who suffered by PTSD, committed suicide.

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Ouderkick said it’s fitting that the movie’s publicity poster shows a soldier, still in uniform, sitting just feet away from his front door.

“We train them well to go to war, but we don’t train them to come home,” Ouderkick said. “You come out of high school and you’re trained to be a warrior. Then you’re sent off to a field somewhere, and bombs are being blown up and you’re getting shot at and you’re killing people.

“Then you go home and that trash never leaves your mental trash can. All that trash is stuck up there. There are invisible scars when the veteran comes home and the family doesn’t know to deal with it.”

The purpose of the movie, Ouderkick said, is to “take the top off that can” so the soldier and their family can start the recovery process.

“Talking is healing,” said Herb Davis, 56, a former Marine who helps with missionary work at Berachah. “Anytime you can express yourself to someone who is caring and concerned, that helps in the process.”

Ouderkick has visited numerous VFWs and American Legions and he and Davis talked to leaders of the Dayton Veterans Administration last week. They hope to fill the 450-seat Berachah sanctuary with veterans, their families and anyone interested in learning more about the effects of PTSD.

“A better awareness” is how Ouderkick described the goal of the movie.

In 2011, Waldrep launched Front Porch Media and produced “Invisible Scars: Hope for Warriors With Hidden Wounds.” Five years later, after learning that Moral Injury was undiagnosed or misdiagnosed due to the lack of awareness, “Honoring the Code: Warriors and Moral Injury” was released.

Depending on the response to “Trauma Comes Home,” Davis said Berachah may create a ministry for veterans.