A Marine – who gave his own life so others could live.
A Marine – who not only saved lives in 2004 but continues to impact them today.
A Marine – who became a gift to so many people and in so many ways.
“The Gift” – among the most powerful of the 31 films shown at the GI Film Festival, which CalVet co-sponsored in San Diego (May 15-20) – truly keeps on giving, as several of those involved with the film attest.
The documentary tells the story of 22-year-old Marine Cpl. Jason Dunham, who served in Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 7th Marines; he died from wounds sustained when he subdued a grenade-carrying insurgent in Husaybah, Iraq, in 2004. He saved two others in his unit by staying on top of the enemy who held the grenade when it exploded. President George W. Bush later presented Dunham’s adoptive parents, Dan and Deb, with his Medal of Honor, and the Navy named a destroyer, the USS Jason Dunham, in his honor.
The film is so much more than a biopic, though. The Festival’s other films mostly focused on individual topics, including military sexual trauma, discrimination, racism, among others.
“The Gift” runs the gamut of military service, especially to those who saw combat, life and death, shock, sorrow, grieving and regret, family, friendships and camaraderie, success and failure, redemption and sacrifice.
It also touches on elements that many veterans face today – PTSD, thoughts of suicide, frustration, addiction, and survivor’s guilt – to name a few.
Awareness and the need to understand and address these issues are among the reasons CalVet supports the festival. That it happened in May – which includes Mental Health Awareness Month and Memorial Day – seemed only fitting.
While the two-hour-long film might have concluded on big screen, “The Gift” lives eternally in the minds and hearts of those who knew Dunham. They, in fact, tell his story – their story — through interviews, photographs, and footage of events, including memorials. It culminates with a Kilo Company reunion hosted by Dunham’s parents, during which Dad Dan, brought them together in 2021 to reassure them everything will be okay.
These recorded moments are intense at times, touching and loving in others. Their deep and personal testimonies depicting the before, during, and aftermath of Dunham’s death drained Navy veteran and director David Carl Kniess, Jr. emotionally while making the film.
Each interview “ripped me up,” he said after the showing, which several others in the film also attended.
“The Gift” tells of promises made and kept. Dunham fulfilled a promise not to leave them behind when his tour of duty ended, extending it to stay with them in Iraq. It was during that time he was mortally wounded.
After the grenade exploded, and Dunham lay near death in a field hospital, clinical psychologist Heidi Kraft held his hand fully expecting him to pass at any moment. When he squeezed her hand, she thought it was a reflex. She asked if he could hear her, and if so, to squeeze it again. He did, and she promised she would get him on the next flight back to the states immediately. Kraft, now with PsychArmor, a nonprofit training provider for military cultural awareness, fulfilled her promise. That, in turn, enabled Dunham to fulfill the one he’d made to his mom before leaving for Iraq—that he would make it home alive.
He was flown to Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland, where his parents were able to say their goodbyes eight days after the explosion. Yet another promise—Jason had asked his father to promise not to keep him on life support if the situation arose. Dad Dan kept his word.
“To sit there and see your child take his last breath … ,” Dan Dunham began, and “we got a gift,” Deb Dunham finished.
Back home, many of Dunham’s comrades struggled with his death. One reached out to the Dunhams, writing: “You lost a son today, but you’ve got 34 more boys here and they are up for adoption.”
It took others years to cope, among them Sgt. Mark Dean, whose problems with PTSD and addiction wrought devastating consequences on him and his family after he returned from his third and final tour of duty. The memory of Dunham – and talking to Kniess for the film – proved to be therapeutic and gave Dean the motivation he needed to begin to heal. He was among the Kilo 3/7 Marines who attended the GI Film Festival showing.
“It was helpful to be a part of it,” Dean said. “It was the first time I talked about it in a long time. It’s like it was yesterday. I’d get clean, then fall back into (addiction). After David made this film, I felt like a weight had been taken off my shoulders. I want to help others who went through what I’ve been through. Let them know they can make it. (Dunham) was the gift that changed my life.”
Marine Cpt. Trent Gibson also attended and told of the impact Dunham and his service made, that continues to this day. He emphasized that Marines go to war knowing they all might not make it back. Those who do, simply want the opportunity to move ahead.
“I retired in 2014,” Gibson said. “I’ve been a carpenter ever since. I spend my day with tools in hand and the Marines on my mind. We are not victims. We don’t want sympathy. We just want to move into the next phase of our lives with a purpose … with purpose. That’s all.”
Every man in Dunham’s squad came home because he made the ultimate sacrifice.
A gift, from “The Gift.”
Veterans Services
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