After their deployments ended and they returned home, Iraq and Afghanistan combat veterans Travis Weiner and Tommy Furlong were profoundly discouraged by how little the American public seemed to know or care about the wars and their cost to the men and women who were fighting them. After leaving the military, they worked together at a Boston-area nonprofit serving veterans and their families. Many veterans they interacted with told them the same thing: no one was interested in what they had to say about the wars. People already had a story about veterans - they’re valorous heroes who defend our freedoms and protect America - and that story didn’t leave room for anything veterans had to say about what their wars were really like, or how they were affected by the terrible things they’d seen and done.

In 2018, Travis and Tommy decided to make a documentary film that would feature combat veterans sharing stories from their deployments and speaking candidly about their wars. Their purpose was to validate veterans’ experiences, to give clinicians the information they need to understand moral injury (the profound psychological and emotional wound that veterans often carry from their wartime experiences), and to share with the American public the true cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.