CBS Sunday Morning: The Way Home

There is something resolutely dignified about this report, despite its potentially sensational subject matter. In an unadorned studio, correspondent Kimberly Dozier interviews Dawn Halfaker, who lost her right arm in Iraq. In a second segment, she interviews Jaunita Wilson. When Wilson lost her left hand in the war, she became the first combat amputee in U.S. military history who is also a mother. Both women speak openly with Dozier in part because she, too, is a casualty. In 2006, her legs were smashed when a car bomb exploded as she covered a patrol action in Baghdad. While all three speak of their injuries with a quiet courage, they also acknowledge that the changes in their bodies express something different from those experienced by men. Their stories help define what it means to be a female combat soldier, a casualty, an amputee—and a woman who continues life in a culture where appearance, work, or family still mean something distinctive for them. For exploring the complexities of intertwined service, sacrifice, gender and survival, a Peabody Award goes to CBS Sunday Morning: The Way Home.