Battle Scars

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Simon Moloney took up a lonely sniper position in an Afghan building, not realising it was the headquarters of the local Taliban. Suddenly he and his comrade came under heavy fire from all sides. A bullet slammed into Simon's throat - a wound which should have killed him in minutes. Bleeding and certain he was close to death, Simon started to fight back against huge odds. It was one of Simon's best days ever.    

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Former Green Beret and NFL player Nate Boyer never picks the easy path or runs away from conflict. In Afghanistan, he learned to trust and respect the local soldiers whose lives and views at first seemed so alien to his American eyes. Back home, when quarterback Colin Kaepernick sat out the national anthem in a civil rights protest, Nate didn't shy away from the controversy. While disagreeing with the star's actions, Nate wanted to understand  - so he started a dialogue with Colin which resulted in #TakeAKnee.   

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As a soldier in US Army Special Forces, Tu Lam fought all over the world. He saw action in the wars you see on the TV news, but also in smaller conflicts you've probably never heard about. As a former refugee himself, he wanted to help innocent people in those strife-torn places. However, Tu saw so many awful things and experienced such personal losses that hate grew in his heart until it became his main motivation for fighting. That imbalance caused him to examine his career in the Green Berets and set about finding a new path.  

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In Iraq, Arnold Strong went hunting for a terrorist bomb and found it right under his feet. The realisation of how close he'd come to death again and again on his tour made him think about the skeletons in his closet. On leave, he decided to tell his wife a secret he'd buried deep inside. The revelation totally blew up his family life. 

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Tammy Duckworth was having the best day of her deployment in Iraq - at the controls of a US Army Black Hawk helicopter - when insurgents launched an attack on the aircraft. Small arms fire peppered her side of the chopper... then a rocket-propelled grenade tore through the fuselage and detonated in her lap. Now a US Senator, she says she wouldn't go back to change anything about the journey that put her in harm's way. 

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