On Wednesday 11/19/14, we had the pleasure of interviewing Dan Lohaus, the director of the documentary “When I Came Home” a film made in 2006 about a veteran named Herold Noel and his struggles after coming home from fighting in battle. Herold was one of the first Iraqi veterans to return home and in the film he fights to make life better for himself and other veterans. Herold was unable to work or get a job at all and support his wife and 3 children. This was because he was diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) when he returned home, and was then told he was 100% disabled. This led Harold to live out of his car.
We knew that Herold would fight and would do whatever it took to make a change. Once he got his story in the news the topic started to get recognized. After watching the movie we knew that we would get a lot of information. This influenced us to interest the director Dan Lohaus. We called him and tried to get an interview with him and Herold, but he wasn’t as close as he was with Herold after the movie released.
When we interviewed Dan, he told us that he had never been in the army, but has a always been concerned about the topic of Homeless Veterans. He woke up one day and saw what was happening. He was furious about it, and he wanted other people to be too. We asked him what it was like filming the documentary, and he replied that sometimes it was very hard. In one scene, Herold breaks down crying. When we asked Dan about his reaction he told us that he felt in a way torn, because while he wanted the story out there and it was good footage, it made Herold vulnerable and so in the background you can hear Dan comforting Herold.
Our interview with Dan only lasted about 45 minutes, but we took away a lot of information. Dan told us to fight for something you care about, and that you will always have a connection with people. We discussed for a long time Dan’s experience with filming the documentary, and took away that anyone can make a difference if they work hard. Dan had no connection, he was just a man that had a camera and a statement to make. We look forward to keeping in touch with Dan, and even talking to him about potentially getting in touch with Paul Rieckhoff (Paul Rieckhoff is a writer, social entrepreneur, advocate, activist and veteran of the United States Army and the Iraq War. He is the Founder and CEO of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America.) and other organizations. We are extremely grateful for this interview.
