| Description |
1 online resource (streaming video file) (26 min. 32 sec.) ; 160278896 bytes |
| Summary |
Anyone who grew up in the 70s and had a television also grew up with M.A.S.H. - the black comedy about a bunch of US medical staff at a mobile surgical hospital in the Korean War. The series premiered in 1972, and the 1983 finale still ranks as one of the most-watched television of all time. When Foreign Correspondent's Mark Corcoran stepped out of a helicopter in a remote outpost of Afghanistan in January, he walked into a modern-day, real-life version of M.A.S.H. Here though the world weary cast of cynical and conniving characters are replaced with what looks like youthful exuberance and sophisticated clinical precision.Many of the men and women in Mark's story were not even born when M.A.S.H. was on air. Two thirds of those fighting in Afghanistan were still in school when George W. Bush declared war on the Taliban more than 8 years ago.Corcoran observes: "It's 7 years since my last extended embed here with US troops and today I'm struck by their youth. This conflict has become America's Generation Y war."It's not long though before first impressions give way to reality. Sure they're young but they're under enormous emotional and physical stress and pressure and with that comes a growing bewilderment about the purpose of this war.'The Golden Hour' is confronting and revealing, chronicling the daily life of medical personnel from all walks of life brought together in a field hospital not far from the fighting, Daily, they strive and struggle to keep their colleagues - and sometimes the locals who are trying to blow them up - alive.The program's title refers to the crucial time-frame they have to save their patients - many of them will die unless they are treated within an hour of being injured. The field hospitals operate in remote areas because in Afghanistan's rugged terrain it's not possible to get the injured to a proper hospital soon enough.The medical teams say they're bracing for the bloody consequences of 'the surge' and they tell Corcoran that they're wearying of the long deployments. They wonder aloud about the point of it all.And in between time they distract themselves from brutal reality in whatever way they can |
| Event |
Broadcast 2010-02-16 at 20:00:00 |
| Notes |
Classification: NC |
| Subject |
Battle casualties.
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Emergency medical services.
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Military campaigns.
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Soldiers -- Wounds and injuries.
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United States. Army.
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Afghanistan.
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| Form |
Streaming video
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| Author |
Brodman, Nissa, contributor
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Corcoran, Mark, host
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Helsel, Bryan, contributor
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Hueman, Matt, contributor
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Wilhelm, Ben, contributor
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