Photojournalist Ashley Gilbertson // Portfolio // Bedrooms Of The Fallen. From the Battlefield to the Comedy Stage: Healing Bobby Henline. “I had a good time in Iraq, but that last tour was a real blast. It took me four tours to realize my lucky number is 3.” —Bobby Henline This essay is one part of our feature on Bobby Henline. See Red Border Films’ full documentary on his story at TIME.com/RedBorder On April 7, 2007, three weeks after Bobby Henline arrived in Iraq for his fourth tour, his humvee was blown up. The four soldiers with him were killed. The early months of recovery were a blur. Returning home was even harder. At home, Henline realized the extent of his injuries. “You have to live with a different mind-set there that you can’t live with here,” he says. Henline prayed for God to take him in his sleep. While he was rehabilitating with other wounded soldiers, Henline tried to keep their spirits up by telling them jokes.
Finally, here was a space where he could acknowledge the first thing people notice when they see him, where he didn’t have to avoid talking about the experience that changed his life. Changing life Homeless vet. Jim Wolf had long, unkempt hair and a full, ungroomed beard. He wore a casual T-shirt with a white undershirt underneath. Jim Wolf, a U.S. Army veteran, struggled for years with homelessness and alcoholism. (Image source: YouTube) At first glance, Wolf looked the stereotype of the homeless veteran that he was, one who struggled with poverty and alcoholism for years.
A local filmmaker wanting to change the way people stereotype the homeless gave Wolf a makeover. Rob Bliss, a 25-year-old known locally for creating fun, viral videos, took a different approach in his latest creation. “For me, personally, I’ve been trying to get more into doing things for a better purpose,” Bliss told TheBlaze in a phone interview Thursday. “The homeless are people we ignore every day,” Bliss said. That’s what brought Bliss to Degage, a local Christian ministry providing services to the homeless in Grand Rapids, and to Jim Wolf, who served in the U.S.
Image source: YouTube This was the end result. War is Personal Eugene Richards. Iraq Veterans Against the War | You are not alone. Dawnhloh.