Short film tracks a traumatic injury and amazing recovery

Put out by the U.S. War Department in 1945, “Diary of a Sergeant” was directed by two-time Academy Award nominee Joseph M. Newman while serving as a Major in the U.S. Army Signal Corps. It tells the story of Harold Russell, a soldier who lost both hands in a training accident when an explosive device detonated prematurely. It follows him from the first days of post op, through rehabilitation, his eventual recovery and mastery of the prosthetic hooks that replaced his hands. While not injured in combat, his physical wounds are as devastating as any suffered by the combat casualties that populate his Army Hospital ward. While describing their injuries, he gives us an insight into the less obvious emotional scars he was dealing with when he said, “One thing, I envied the others though, they got theirs in combat. I got mine on D-Day all right, but it wasn’t at Normandy — it was in North Carolina, when half a pound of TNT exploded ahead of schedule. I didn’t have a German scalp hanging from my belt. I didn’t have a Purple Heart. I didn’t even have an overseas ribbon. All I had was no hands.” His riveting presence in this short film got Russell cast in the Academy Award-winning role of Homer Parrish in “The Best Years of Our Lives.”

To view “Diary of a Sergeant,” click here.

To read the review of “The Best Years of Our Lives,” click here.