Synopsis

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  • Dedicated to John Daniel Shannon
                                    

The life of a wounded warrior’s wife is complicated and messy. It’s even more complicated and messy when you are trying to write a book about it. The stakes are high: The book is about a scandal that made national news. A movie about the scandal was in production ...but it stalled in the development stage. The real story still needs to be told.

Will the book ever make it to a publisher? If so, will the author’s life fall apart around her during the process of writing the book? Are there unseen consequences by telling her side of the story? Will there ever be a happy ending?

I am that author. This is my story about my desire, and need, to write a memoir that tells the story behind the story. Follow me as I share the trials I endured and the sacrifices I made to make this dream a reality.

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Synopsis of main story:  Staff Sgt. Dan Shannon, a US Army Sniper, is shot in the head in Iraq. With only a 2% chance of survival, he is sent to Walter Reed Army Medical Center to recover. Dan is joined by an unlikely ally: his ex-wife, Torrey, who brings their three sons to visit.  When Torrey realizes Dan is suffering from serious brain injury, and can’t care for himself, she moves with him into the Mologne House, an on-base facility for wounded warriors. Dan and Torrey are stunned by the number of brain injured and traumatized soldiers who get lost in the system, receiving sub-standard care. When a young soldier dies of neglect, Dan realizes he has to go to battle against his beloved Army in order to win better care for his fellow soldiers. This is a true story about how two ordinary people helped uncover and expose the pattern of neglect and indifference up to the highest levels of government ...and found true love along the way.

(Expanded story from the Pulitzer-prize winning series of articles by Washington Post writers Dana Priest and Anne Hull.)

About the movie: Original script by Ron Nyswaner. Producers: Larry Lyttle, David Helpern for HBO Films.

Fortuna Favet Fortibus - Latin translation: "Fortune Favors the Bold" (Motto for the 2/327th US Army Scout Platoon)

Fortune Favors the Bold: (Epilogue to the Walter Reed Scandal Story)Where stories live. Discover now