replaced and this is the second time this happened. it's crazy. he's being replaced by a younger late night talk show host. what could possibly go wrong? state your name. do you solemnly swear to support and defend the constitution of the united states? against all enemies, foreign and domestic so help me god. >> it is estimated that over our nation's history, somewhere between 40 and 60 million people have taken that oath. and around 1.2 million have paid the ultimate price for it. while there are a million different opinions on our

military as a whole, we celebrate the individuals who waive flags, go to parades, offer them solemn moments at games. we call them heroes and patriots. but for those who return, many are never the same. and all too often, we leave them alone to bear the pain. we say it all the time. but in reality, how well do we actually support our troops? ♪ ♪ >> san diego, california, the

dichotomy. on the one hand it is known for being laid back and mellow, a sunny, sleepy hamlet. but on the other hand, there's this. not sleepy or mellow at all. san diego is home to the navy, marines, coast guard and air force. it's got three carrier groups, the largest concentration of active and retired military personnel in the u.s. and let me check my notes, a trazillion dollars in american military hardware. yep, san diego. where they trade seals and seals. as a nation, our military is intertwined into almost every aspect of our lives, from little league baseball to mattress sales to movies and video games. we are taught to idealize at the military and at the same time, we are told to stay the hell out of its business. but the military is ours.

literally our job is to get up in its business. it is diverse and complicated in dealing with the same issues of rights, representation, justice and too many white dudes at the top telling everybody what to do. >> he doesn't know, but he's become a de facto mentor for me because there are so few black generals. he has been a north star. >> is it weird to call him dana. >> it's very weird and i'm like really soaking it in right now. dana, dana, dana as much as possible. >> both are graduates of west point and combat vets. mary now works as senior adviser for americore. dana served as a deputy commander in iraq and he was so trusted during the clinton administration he was charged with carrying the new clear football. >> i guess that's a good job? >> but even with all those

accomplishments, the military never let them forget one thing. >> being black in this country, there is a lot of things you try to do or want to do, but you know racism will get in the way. at least in theory, the military is based on meritocracy. >> it is as close to a merit tok rasy as you can get. what you don't account for is all the other flaws, the human flaws. a few weeks ago someone i respect highly, white male, west point graduate, he goes, mary, you are a black patriot. well, i'm a patriot. you know? and in that moment, i said, man, we do have a ways to go because even my service to this country has an identifier. >> yeah. because the military still based in a place called america. >> well, yeah. it is a reflection of america. you know that famous photo now of the oval office with all the

four star commanders and chiefs of staff of the military, it was all white. >> i think this picture made me snow blind. here is how america breaks down by race and gender. less than 1% serve in the military. that breaks down like this. the gender numbers, ugh. here is the break down for the officer class. and for the top brass. so much more meritocracy. >> if all leadership is white, protestant men, there is an expension tagt that the decision-making, the promotion system, the respect for certain culture will reflect that of the dominant culture, which is the leadership. >> one of the things i have learned is whenever i meet someone who has served in the military, i say thank you for your service. >> well, it's appreciated. oftentimes we will say thank you

for your support. but let's talk about that and how do we really thank someone for their service? americans have served our country every war we have, but america hasn't always served us. there is five different things at west point named after robert e. lee. barracks, housing area. >> we don't all know our history enough to know. >> it's culture. we have to work on that. two months before graduation as a senior at west point. i went into two of my class mates, their room. i thought i heard something, but couldn't have heard that. one of them ran out the room and said, dana, i'm sorry for calling you the n word. you know, we have worked together as freshman in pleats, and we are two months from graduation. and you still, all you see me is as a nigger. >> i believe that the majority of my white brothers and sisters in arms serve this country

because of what they believe this country to be. the majority of african-americans serve this country because of what we hope this country will be. >> that's powerful. >> that's it right there. >> yeah. >> we're trying to turn this country into the myth of what this country says it is. >> yes. >> yes. patriotism is a big draw. but let's be honest. there is another big reason that many people join the military. >> servicemen's readjustment act of 1944. better known as the gi bill of rights. >> money. money for college, for a house, for your family, for health care, an economy built for the few but not the many basically equals a defactor draft of the poor. i'm not judging those people. they got to put their butts on the line just like people who signed up for love of country. no matter why you sign up, once you do, you are giving up your basic legal rights to these guys, who, again, thought this

photo was a good idea. >> there is too much deference to the generals and admirals. every time generals and admirals testify, it starts off, i want to thank you for your service. thank the junior enlisted who are actually risking their lives day in and day out. >> the president of protect our defenders, the preeminent human rights organization in the fight to end sexual violence, sexual p prejudice in the military. dwight sterling is founder of the center for law and military policy and a leading scholar on military ethics. >> what we don't hear from often are the privates. if you are a junior listed, you don't have a lot of rights and protections. >> fortunately and unfortunately, our legal system is the most powerful resource for change and social justice. but it is also largely unavailable to the ranks of enlisted soldiers because of

something known as the ferris dock ring. you can die to defend the rights of others, but you can't lawyer up to defend yourself. >> this is the only class of american who is locked out of courts, those folks who protect our rights. >> if you get injured in combat, there is a va system. when you are injured for negligence, are you injure d tht you can't sue your commander. that's insane. >> it seems very similar of the way that if you go to prison. >> it is. >> you lose a lot of your rights. >> it is. there is something in that because, in fact, if you are a prisoner, you have more rights. >> wow. >> because if you are a prisoner and you're assaulted by, you know, a colleague or by a prison guard, you get to go to court and make your case. whereas, if you serve our country in uniform, you don't. so we give more rights to those who have engaged in crime than we give to those who protect us in our beds at night.

it's a matter of discrimination. >> yes. >> let's dig into that. discrimination is not just about race. it's by definition the denial of rights to one group that you provide to everyone else. the military is made up of black, white, latin x, asian, straight, people of all genders from all walks of life that don't share the same rights as the rest of us. the only resource our troops have to fight discrimination no matter what military leadership says is us, voting and demanding justice and equality. that's supporting our troops. >> i don't know if you could tell me how i could as much as the military is none of my business. >> it's bizarre because that's what we're supposed to be about is civilian control of the military. we have a civilian commander in chief, civilian commander of defense. >> true patriotism is demanding this country live up to the myths it taught us. they want us to know that the

military, like the country, has problems, and they won't stop pointing that out. >> it is a part of my loyalty and love that i challenge us to be better. no, i'm not going to let my military, my army that i proudly serve be racist or sexist or homophobic because that's not the best of us. >> america, i still believe, is the greatest nation in the world. but we have a history. and i do not want to leave this earth without making that difference for future children, grandchildren. >> i keep getting hung up on black patriot. that sounds like a b level superhero from the '70s. black lightening. black panther. here comes black patriot. one product and it does it all. yay, spf! garnier brightening serum cream. already more than 1000 5 star reviews. by garnier, naturally.

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♪ welcome to total raptor experience. have you worked with falcons or hawks? >> hope. i have worked with parakeets. you have done this before, right? >> i have flown a couple times. you're not scared, right? >> no. i appreciate that. >> tj is a navy veteran who works as a civilian comptroller for the navy. it is his job to protect your tax dollars. if you want to give her a nice stable place to hang out, up you

go. good bird. >> now what do i do? >> just hang there with her. >> there she comes. stick out your glove. fabulous. >> i didn't look. if i look, i'm going to flinch. i feel like i'm on the cover of billionaires monthly. >> and if you haven't noticed, i have had a perma grin on my face since we started flying. >> what does it do for you? >> i think it just grounds me. you know, being a transgender man in today's society is super duper stressful. >> also it's very calming out here by the water. >> oh, it's beautiful. yeah, it's nice to be in san diego with still the navy presence here. my blood runs navy blue. my family has been in the military since the revolutionary war. >> what are the challenges? >> where do i begin?

>> the biggest challenge was hiding who i was. because i got out before don't ask, don't tell. >> banning the discrimination of enlistment based on sexual orientation. it required gay and lesbian service members to keep thsecre >> it is my duty to group hold the high standard of unit cohesion of the world's finist fighting force. >> unit cohesion, combat readiness, good order and discipline. if you look through the history, these are the rationalizations you will hear again and again. first used to prohibit everybody who wasn't white. then women. then gay folks. then trans folks. >> i should clarify i joined the navy female bodied.

it makes you split your life. and i got very good at it. i'm very good at compartmentalizing. i couldn't hide my life and i shouldn't have had to. that's what sparked us to say, this isn't good for you. this isn't good for us. i knew since i was a kid that i always wanted to -- i used to pray to god at night to wake up and be a boy. >> when you left the navy, you were like i need to be out of here and i can't be myself. >> i walked into my boss's office and you said, can i be frank? and he said sure. i said, no, i want to be frank. >> that's how i did it. >> that's how i did it. >> now it's about being grounded in who i am and being confident in who i am. >> it seems to be such a sad irony that, as you said, that you got a lot of strength from your transition that if your military had allowed you to do that when you were in the military or made you feel like

that was possible, you would have been a better person for the military. >> that is an actual truth. >> in total, more than 13,000 service members were discharged under don't ask, don't tell until president obama put an end to it in 2011. while the military has been making strides to be more lgbtq plus positive, out of nowhere, president trump banned transgender service members in 2017 citing, you guessed it. >> it erodes military readiness and unit cohesion. >> while president biden has since reversed that ban, frustratingly, the debate rages on. >> we talk about this country, one thing the military is supposed to be doing is protecting our freedom. it feels like that you were in the military not being allowed to be free. >> i was fighting for someone else's freedom. i work with all these young sailers and they would be talking to me.

one female sailer was like, oh, me and my wife. i'm like the grinch where my heart just grows two more sizes. am i a little envious? of course. but seeing other people makes the sacrifice worth it. i had to live through this so you don't have to. ♪welcome back to that same old place♪ ♪that you laughed about♪ ♪well, the names have all changed♪ ♪since you hung around♪ welcome back, america.

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in the counsels of government we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence whether sought or unsought by the military industrial complex. >> that's an american president. and five star general warning us all about the threat of a militarized nation dependent on the war machine. yet, we have been at war for 35 of the 60 years since he left office, culminating in our longest war ever in afghanistan. why? because despite eisenhower's warning we have become that militarized nation. >> you have a whole industry that profits every time we drop a bomb. if we wanted to that in any other country, you would have people saying, oh, of course these people are corrupt. i'm not here to say that there aren't real geopolitical threats, but we have 800 foreign

military bases while the rest of the world has 70. >> brittney served in afghanistan. she is a member of about face, an antiwar group formed by and for veterans. >> thank you for suffering through the outside. is jerry there? >> yeah! what's up? >> as a service member of vocal against the wars in iraq and afghanistan, brittney has received both praise and pushback, including being told she was going native, which is racist for meaning she cares. >> and they described it almost like a mental health problem, where you had started empathizing too much with the people of the land that you were sent to. >> well, even in saying that, you're talking about -- you're expressing empathy with the afghan people. >> i got there a true believer. i was young. i was bright eyed. i believed that we were the good guys. i came back in 2013 really confused. i felt clear when i came home that i had done nothing but

participate in arm. and it struck me in that moment that i had a responsibility to be speaking up. >> yeah. >> we need to address nationalism because people are so conditioned to hide behind the flag. >> my name is brittney ramos. i'm a woman. i'm white. i'm latina. i'm black. i'm queer and i'm a combat veteran. >> i had training orders and i prepared 14 facts so post on my twitter and facebook each day for the 14 days that i would be on duty. >> day one. at the current rate, the u.s. drops a bomb every 12 minutes. day two, the u.s. military burns 10,273,972 gallons of oil per day. day 3, on any given day, the u.s. is actively bombing

predominantly black, brown countries. day 4. afghan civilians injured and killed. 4,732. 2017, 8,019. defense corporations make contributions to 496 out of 535 members of congress. >> and that's all put together from information that the military has put out in the world. >> the military or the government. >> and you got in trouble for googling? >> the recommendation that was given was a recommendation to court-martial me for conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman which is still actually the full title of that charge. >> you say, yes, all my conduct is unbecoming of gentleman. >> officers stand in their uniforms and support the war every time, every day in congress. so the question for me was raised of if i am allowed to

stand in my uniform and support the war, why am i not allowed to stand in my uniform and not? these wars are not only continuing but they have gotten even more decemberstructive. >> the fact that these wars have spanned multiple presidential administrations across both parties now says it all. war and this military industrial complex is one of the most bipartisan things in america. >> this is important. these wars are our wars. our money, our people, our morality. and our legacy in the eyes of history and the world. we are responsible for making sure that if we do go to war, there is a damn good reason besides putting money into rich people's pockets. higher than the next ten countries combined.

how many of our own neighborhoods could be rebuilt with that money? our priorities are awful. >> we need to change what supporting the troops mean. it is not this empty, plastic patriotism that we're groomed to believe in, right, with all the sports event fanfare and the empty thank yous for your service. we're never going to get that beautiful, just world that i believe is possible if we continue to invest in death and destruction. never seen anything like it.

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over the past 20 years, is so-called war on terror has seen us stumbling in and stumbling out of a series of failed wars. just ask the 37 million people who have been displaced by the wars or the 800,000 people, including 7,000 troops and 335,000 civilians that have died because of the wars. or maybe just ask this guy because he was there. what does the word patriotism mean to you. >> love, an expression of love. but it can be turned into something dangerous, which is called nationalism. you know, nationalism is when we put ourselves above everybody else. >> yeah. >> river rainbow is a navy veteran and a tv producer who was a combat camera man in iraq and afghanistan. he also volunteered to fight isis in northern syria alongside the kurds. i know. you can find his film about it on youtube.

>> how do people who are not of that region end up over there fighting for the kurds? >> i was humbled to stand with the kurds. i was honored, but isis drew me there. i am pissed off when i watch people getting burned alive and knowing i participated in the creation of that. >> secretary of state and retired four star general colin powell through some half truths and a little razzle-dazzle convinced the world that iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction. spoiler alert. there were no weapons of mass destruction. >> i went to iraq in 2005 and spent seven months with third and third platoon. when i saw boots on the ground in iraq, it was awful. what we did was wrong in the first place. and america wanted out because

they knew it was wrong. but then when obama pulled out of iraq, it was even wronger. >> in the wake of the destruction we brought on iraq and the power vac sum we left behind, the islamic state of iraq. and isis was born. >> did you understand what it meant to fight? >> oh, yeah. i went there specifically to show that conflict. >> all right. we just got ambushed. i just started turning the camera and talking to it because it was just overwhelming, you know, like what's happening. we set up a medical training unit because we realized right away nobody had any training.

>> river and other volunteers spent months fighting in a city controlled by isis. >> you never see nothing like it. like it's terrifying. >> okay. i see it. >> and the things that happened there are terrible. >> come on. we're going to get you to the ambulance, okay? come on, brother. >> i know. it's okay, all right? >> look, i know this is hard to watch. and let's be real. we actually cut out the worst part of this. but war is violence. we have to own that. just like we have to own the effect it has on our veterans when they return home. all of this is ours. >> war is murder. you know what it's like when you get into war. it's just killing. it's just killing, and it's

gross. and it ain't your ideology. it ain't your country no more. it's just kill or die, and that's it. taking a lot of time thinking about this because you can't escape it. and once you go to a place like that and experience those things, you can't never come back. and that's what they don't -- they don't let you know in the rhetoric, in the video games, in the movies. i have horrible nightmares. like every night. and i wake up in the morning, and i could be really [ bleep ] up. and the ocean is something that is helping to heal me some. and, man, it's -- it's like, i can breathe.

right? i've come to the conclusion you can never take back the bad that you have done. i want to say this because it's important and america needs to know. what we did there was wrong. we knew there was no weapons of mass destruction. we knew. we all knew. you know? the moral bruising is different than ptsd. the moral bruising is knowing i witnessed civilians being killed. i love this country. and i'm watching this country [ bleep ] kill people, and it breaks my heart. >> so do you think there is ever a reason for war? >> [ bleep ] yeah. yeah. we needed to kill isis. they needed to die. but should we have created them? so it's a real catch 22, isn't it? >> yes, yes. so i don't know if you know -- >> the solution? we need to invest in peace, not bombs. we need to invest in peace,

infrastructure, opportunities. >> what does that mean? what does that look like? >> instead of sending our kids to the middle east to die, you know, let's send them to build schools and roads and hospitals. >> as we pull out of afghanistan, we have to remember the lessons of iraq, isis, syria, the kurds and the civilians caught in the middle. otherwise, this is all going to happen again. and our citizens, our troops and the people of the world will be forced to ask the same sad questions of war. what do we kill and die for? what exactly was the point?

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you got your existing customers — they also get our best deals. everyone. gets. the deals. questions? got it. but, why did you use a permanent marker? because i want to make sure you remember. i am going to get a new whiteboard. it's not complicated. only at&t gives new & existing customers the same great deals on all smartphones. get up to $700 off our latest 5g smartphones. remember the term shell shock? it was the clumsy way we described how the horrors of war affected soldiers. eventually we had terms like ptsd. but they were associated by combat. now we know it is not limited to

combat. guess what's especially traumatizing? going through something awful and not being automobile to get help. >> so tell me about these two. >> this is logan. >> and who is this? >> this is larry. >> i never thought i would end up with him. what i wanted was a hypo allerginic dog. >> so are you on all the allergy medicines possible? >> i sure am. these navy veterans transitioned out of the military in the last year. they're still in the process of figuring out the civilian world. it is larry and logan's job to make it as easy as possible on them. service dogs brought them over. these dogs are working. sometimes that means being a lap dog. >> larry is always looking for me in the house. always has to have eyes on me, especially being in public. because of my condition with

ptsd, i lock myself inside the house a lot. >> the isolation is 110% real. and the fact that richard and i are sitting here telling you our experiences is due to these creatures right here. >> i don't have a history of service in my family. only less than 1% of americans serve in the military. so i understand there is a real misunderstanding of what it is to be a veteran and how our military treats veterans. >> i don't care what alignment you have. the people who are in charge are not doing it right. >> i was medically retired the end of may. and, so, i'm still to this day feeling loss. and i felt like i didn't have the support when i really needed it. i think i may have acquired a

majority of my ptsd when i was in iraq. there was a lot that happened, stuff i saw that haunts me. >> you know, it seems like if anybody would understand that it would be the military because they have seen people get ptsd. >> but they stig mytize it and push it to the size. my experience is military sexual trauma, which is something we definitely push far, far under the rug. but it's out there. and it happens more than you think. i pushed mine so far under, i fell completely [ bleep ] apart and i had a suicide attempt. and that was it for me. >> yeah. thank you for sharing. so you and i share the same thing. i am also a survivor of male

sexual trauma. i didn't say anything when it happened to me. i kept it hidden because of my hank. what would it sound like for someone at my level to say i was also a survivor. >> you didn't do anything wrong. >> you feel like you did, though. how can you tell them this happened and, oh, also i didn't report it because i was scared of the payback, of the retribution. i was terrified. >> one of the great tragedies of our military, and there are more than a few, is that alex and richard's stories are way too common. nationally only 35% of all sexual assaults are reported. but with active duty military personnel, that number drops to between 15% and 30% for about 6,200 reports in 2019. of those, only 363 went to trial, with only 138 convictions or just 2.3%. this is less than half of the

conviction rate for the whole u.s., which on its own is at a pathetically low 4.9%. and while anyone can be a survivor, women in service are 12 times more likely to receive severe retaliation than to see their assailant punished. remember, they have no legal recourse. and the military uses that like a weapon. >> so the second time that i was assaulted because if people didn't know your trauma goes up the more you experience it. >> so you were assaulted twice? >> yes. it was my supervisor. so i reported it. >> and where did he end up? >> well, the military court trial system prevails. he got to stay in the military. >> wow. >> how does that feel?

>> to know that he's still in and i'm out is a kick in the ass. but i wouldn't trade a day of my life in the military for anything. >> and what about you when you look back on your life in the military? is it a positive? >> i love the military. i joined the navy because i wanted to give back to the country that gave me my citizenship. i did what i needed to do. and i made these sacrifices for my country. where is my support? >> i want to see results. don't tell me. show me. contact your congress people. >> yeah. >> look into your local va. vote. for the love of god, vote. >> since we filmed this episode, an independent civilian review board has recommended taking the prosecution of sexual assault cases out of military control. secretary of defense lloyd austin says it will be considered. still many in military leadership are refusing that

notion citing unit cohesion. >> none of us talk about that enough. >> if one person sees this and is like, i am not alone. you may have many reasons

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♪ who'd have thought they'd lead you ♪ ♪ (who'd have thought they'd lead you) ♪ ♪ back here where we need you ♪ ♪ (back here where we need you) ♪ ♪ yeah, we tease him a lot... ♪ welcome back, america. it sure is good to see you.

♪ oh, say can you see ♪ by the dawn's early light ♪ what so proudly we hail ♪ at the twilight's last gleaming. >> they build a pier. they pound the wall in. and then they tore down the pier. >> yep. >> the amount of money and the amount of energy. >> see the dolphins? >> are there dolphins? >> yeah, yeah. >> the founder of the border church which conducts church services through the u.s. border wall. an air force veteran and the

president of consultant for america's veterans. >> now they will bring in that second wall, the 30 football. >> that's the trump wall. >> imagine the deported vets looking at that and just thinking, you are actually keeping me out. >> i think the thing that is hardest to understand for me, that first of all, you could enlist not being a citizen and also that you could serve and that somehow i would assume the minute you sign the papers you serve they would be like also here is your citizenship. >> that's not how it works. many were so-called dreamers. kids brought to america undocumented. like all documented, they carry issues that at times run them up against the law. the difference is that after they serve their sentences in the u.s., they face exile in a country they barely even know. >> we need to afford them treatment and help not deport them. so it is a major slap in the face to the community that is here.

>> normally, as american citizens, we would just cross the mexico border quickly for a conversation, have some border beers, tacos. but thanks to covid and our last president, it ain't that easy. for these vets, crossing to see us is not an option easier as they continue to fight for their status. for them, these discussions through the wall are common. >> hello. >> hi. how is it going? >> how are you doing? my name is kamal. >> very nice to meet you. my name is robert. >> robert, thank you for doing this. >> thank you for your interest in supporting deported veterans. we appreciate you very much. >> robert is the director of the unified u.s. deported veterans resource member. >> is that alex do i see? >> what's up, john? >> alex is a deported navy veteran. alex has agreed to share his story. >> thank you for doing this

today. i appreciate it. and thank you for your service. >> of course. of course, bro. i'm just a kid from phoenix, arizona, bro. that's all i'm trying to do is get back home. it's un-american to do this to us. we're u.s. soldiers. what's more american than a u.s. soldier? i got deported right around christmas 2011. i was charged with a non-violent cannabis offense in 2009. and i served 37 months federal time. i fully expected to go home. you know, my family, my kids were waiting for me back home. >> so you served 37 months in business. you did your time, man, right? >> all the other soldiers get to go home after they serve their time. we don't get to go home again. at the end, the judge said, i'm going to go on record and say your service to your country is to be commended. thank you for your service. i'm going to have to deport you. >> what was it like when you heard you were going to be deported? >> it hurt, man. this is breaking up military

families. a lot of people don't see that. it's not just us. you take us away from our country, but you affect our whole family. >> knowing all that you have been through, how do you feel about your military service? >> they're not going to ever take that away from us. we will always be u.s. soldiers. we will always be u.s. veterans. we just need to keep fighting, bro. we're not going to quit, man. they trained us too good. they trained us too good as u.s. soldiers. they trained us to never, never quit. we're always going to get back home. >> you hear a lot of politicians say support our troops. how can we do a better job of supporting our troops? >> let's not deport our troops then. my message to america, fight for us. we fought for you. >> i'm not in the military, but i felt like you just gave me an order. so yes, sir. >> right on. >> over the last year or so, many people have been learning about what it means to be an ally. but often people think allies

just stand on the sidelines and cheer the people doing the work. but in the military, an ally fights right next to you and for you when you can't fight for yourself. allies don't just say thank you for fighting. they're supposed to get their hands dirty, raise their voices and they are not supposed to stop until the battle is won. we have to educate ourselves, get involved and say no. no to wars that destroy innocent lives, no to the confederacy in every way. no to military sexual assault. no to homeless vets. no to discrimination and justice in the ranks. and for god sakes, no to deporting those who serve for our freedom. let's bring them all home. >> kamal, there is a marine motto that says leave no one behind. and that is our motto. >> now that i know, i'm going to make sure we don't leave those deported veterans behind. we're coming for you.

>> thank you, kamal. we appreciate this very much. >> we won't leave you behind. you're coming home . >> it felt edgy before i was old enough to appreciate what edgy was. >> i will give it a shot. >> my heart dropped through my butt and exited my butt. >> wholly [ bleep ]. >> this is madness. it makes every hair on my body