A Soldiers Solute

Lifetime’s “Army Wives” Host Red Carpet Screening with Our Nation’s Heroes at Walter Reed

To kick-off the July 4th week and honor America’s servicemen and women and their families, the cast of Lifetime’s hit show “Army Wives” invited real Army Wives, Wounded Warriors and military servicemembers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center to join them for a red carpet event and the advance premiere of an upcoming episode.

Linds and I popped in to catch a sneak peak as were heading to North Carolina for the weekend and would hate to abuse the Tivo. We were pleasantly surprised to see two of the cast members Sally Pressman and Brigid Brannagh! The author of the book that set off this craze, Army Wives' Tanya Biank was also there signing copies, so of course we jumped in line. Only to be asked if we were military wives or in the military. Embarressingly we responded with empty ring fingers, we were just fans.

As touching as it was to have real army wives and the actresses that play them speak on behalf of the surviving soldiers, the stand away speaker was Lee Woodruff, author of In an Instant and wife of ABC News anchor Bob Woodruff, who was injured in Iraq.

Although Bob is not enlisted, he stands shoulder to shoulder with service men and women and was injured covering their crises. She said, "Regardless of how you feel about the war, whether you are for it or against it, as long as our men and women put themselves in the line of fire, we should be there reporting on it." That quote speaks to the central reason I am working to get into international broadcasting. Like our troops, the sacrifice journalists make, in this case to bring the story to us and keep the world transparent is among the most noble.