Brothers at War

You know what a bad day at work for me is? Getting to the set.

And there's no cream cheese for the bagels.

Right, right.

Director. Right.

Couldn't motivate,

I don't know what, a dog to eat a bone.

You got it rough, man. I don't know how you deal with it.

That's a bad day for me.

Dear heavenly Father, we thank you:

You're a God that knows everything that's going on right now

and is intimately acquainted with our deployment,

with everything that's going on in each person's family,

their thoughts, their feelings. We pray that you would give us strength...

That kid, when you're holding her, she's either trying to fall asleep

or she's playing:

She just sat there for 10 minutes, as if she knew I was leaving.

But she had never done that before:

She was saying goodbye:

I mean, that's the most heart-wrenching thing ever:

I don't know how to describe it:

And you just hope that you can see that person again.

I may be walking out of the door for the last time

and abandoning the people I love the most:

And for what? A cause.

I mean, I already told you I believe in what I'm doing:

But, damn, you're asking a lot if I don't get to come back:

Lord, as we leave, keep us safe.

In your holy name we pray. Amen.

Even though this was Isaac's third deployment,

it still felt strange sending my brother off into combat:

But, it didn't feel that way for my youngest brother, Joe:

He'd spent one tour of duty in Iraq in Isaac's unit already:

That's the fun stuff. Kicking in the door,

going and clearing that building, that's fun stuff. It's good shit.

Is it 'cause it's such an adrenaline rush? Is that why it's fun?

You know what I mean? It's just like, life at a...

Even in training, or whatever, you're kicking down that door,

it's awesome. It's the best.

You had to have force:

You gotta have a sheepdog in order to protect the sheep from the wolves:

Sheep are, for the most part, innocent, you know:

Sheepdog, he's organized chaos. You have to have organized chaos

in order to have a free, orderly life.

Imagine. You're going into a house fully geared up, you know.

From head to toe.

You have to see it and do it.

Talking to Joe made me realize

how much he had changed, in the last two years,

and how close he'd become to Isaac:

I began to feel a distance, for the first time, between myself and my two brothers:

Why are you turning on the camera?

Hi there, Thad.

There were five Rademacher boys:

Isaac, Claus,

Thad, Joe, and me, Jake:

I'm the oldest brother, Joe, the youngest:

Behind us boys came our two sisters,

Hannah and Jane:

We all grew up in Decatur, Illinois:

That's it, yeah.

Our childhood was pretty typical: Trick-or-treating,

Don't take down my pants!

Scouts, soccer games, family vacations:

I guess it's what's called "all-American:"

Being the oldest, some of the parenting duties inevitably fell to me:

I enjoyed looking out for the younger ones,

and very quickly became accustomed to the role:

But as we boys grew into men, things changed:

Different paths were chosen:

Isaac graduated the top of his class in military tactics from West Point in 2000:

There, he met and married his wife, Jenny:

Joe followed Isaac into the military:

He joined the army in 2003

and had the rare opportunity to serve with his brother

for his first tour of duty:

Later, he graduated from Ranger School

and top of his class from Sniper School in 2004:

Now a captain, Isaac volunteered for a third deployment to Iraq,

where he serves as the operations officer

for an elite, long-range surveillance company:

There he is.

Dad, quit embarrassing me. Thank you, Isaac.

You, and Isaac, I think, developed as leaders of the group

because you were the older children, and

sometimes you were more dominant than he was,

and other times, he would dominate, depending on what was being done

and how they were playing together.

There you go, son.

He's doing well, he knows he's being filmed right now.

Both boys, I think, were interested off and on in the military,

at least in a peripheral way:

But anyway, Jacob couldn't make it into West Point,

but, his younger brother, Isaac,

became enamored with the idea,

and, lo and behold, you know, he ended up going to West Point.

You were the more thoughtful of the two,

and you were more into analyzing personalities

and why things happened the way that they did:

He was taking the part of the Pied Piper sometimes, with the other kids,

and, "Here, let's do this. "

It was a good time, growing up with five older brothers:

It wasn't rough, you guys never beat me up

or tied me to a tree or anything like that:

You were like, "We can't hurt this one. She's the first girl. "

Jacob started out as a finance major,

and ended up calling to say he was gonna change major in senior year.

And I said, "Maybe international finance

"or international business?"

No, he wanted to be an actor.

So, we had some interesting transatlantic phone calls, after that:

There's been a huge role reversal:

I was the one who was gonna go to West Point:

Isaac was the one that was gonna be a professional actor:

He won the acting award his senior year of high school: Was an athlete:

I basically had a career in high school to prepare for West Point.

Then I didn't get in.

I'll give you a text message when we're sitting.

Let's go.

Not only did I wanna be a soldier, I drove everything in my life towards it,

'cause I always wanted to go to war, always wanted to see it:

So I was floundering in life,

because what I had planned to do in my 20s was denied me:

So it's very interesting, you know: It was a role reversal:

Isaac got much more serious about his life, and I started looking for mine.

Where are you going? You're going to Kuwait.

I wanna know what's going on in Iraq because I have two brothers serving there:

Five hours to Kuwait.

These guys are putting their lives on the line:

Why are they doing it? I need to know.

It's important: I have a personal stake in that:

And that's why I set off with a bare-bones crew

to find my brothers' war in Iraq:

Bye-bye. Bye.

- Bye-bye. All the best. Thank you very much.

I'm tired, I have a headache, my eyes hurt from this prescription.

It's about 11:00. We just arrived in Kuwait.

We got to get out to the Hilton,

call this major so we make it to Iraq tomorrow.

- I said I wanna smell the Kuwaiti air. It's warm.

Wow.

Hey, mom. It's Jake.

I'm calling you from Kuwait.

Yeah, I'm in Kuwait. This is Jake. Yeah.

Little bit, little bit. I feel a little nauseous right now, I'm a little tired.

Still got a little on your chin. Don't leave it just lying here.

The change of climate? Is that what it is? Thought it was the malaria medicine.

Upon arriving at the Hilton,

I learned that our workers' comp insurance had been canceled:

Without this insurance,

I would lose my crew, production team back home,

and I'd be without medical insurance in a war zone:

All this work, and to fail this close:

I decided that I had to go on alone:

Last fucking minute, right as the bus comes,

one of them calls and says, "You got any insurance?"

Then he goes, "Now, here's the bad news. 50 fucking K."

It's fucking way more than what I thought it was gonna be.

So, we're on a bus, we're heading to the airport just outside Kuwait.

All the curtains are drawn, all the lights are out.

- I imagine that's for security. No, that's so we can sleep.

So we can sleep?

Again, like I said, it's for security. People are trying to kill us right now.

What I'd like you to do for me when you get off this bus

is take everything you got, helmet and vest, carry-on luggage,

set it down in these rows.

If you're going to Baghdad, set them down in these rows over here:

I've got four rows off to your left, out here:

When you get out here, it'll be out to your left:

Guys, I have a box built out here:

If your bag does not fit in that box, it goes on the pallet:

It does not go on the plane with you, all right?

So if it doesn't fit in that box, don't argue with me, put it on the pallet:

Bro, man, bro, man, bro, man, you gotta force it. It's too big.

- Okay. Okay?

Now, if it won't fit standing up and it won't fit sideways, it's too big.

- I think if I take this out... Sir...

If it doesn't fit sideways or standing up, it is too big, okay?

- You see these things on the side, though? - Sir, it is still too big.

Pay attention to it. Look at it.

It will not fit in there. It is too big.

All right. - It's longer than the box.

Okay, folks, does anyone have any weapons or ammunition

in their luggage that's on the ground?

Okay, let's get this going.

Your route for today is, you're going from here to Baghdad,

then you're going on to Mosul.

How many years have they been flying this thing?

They were flying them back in Vietnam, there.

Oh, yeah? - That's right.

This is the most reliable aircraft known to man, the C-130.

Workhorse.

- Were you in Vietnam? - Yup.

Military's all I know, and matter of fact, I grew up here:

That means, the first time I learned that I could learn something,

it was in the military.

Now, if you wanna do some shooting up front, stay off those maps.

You should have a great view today.

You guys can shoot outside, and look down, and, you know...

When the pilot heard of my plan to film my brother's unit in Mosul,

he invited me forward to ride in the cockpit: