Martha Raddatz reflects on her upcoming miniseries about Black Sunday: 'It's different than anything I’ve ever done'
— -- At a time when service, sacrifice and Gold Star families are at the forefront of the nation’s dialogue, ABC News’ Martha Raddatz reflected on her “most important project” on the “Powerhouse Politics” podcast.
“It’s different than anything I’ve ever done. It’s really the most important project I’ve ever been on,” Raddatz told ABC News' Chief White House Correspondent Jonathan Karl and Political Director Rick Klein Wednesday about her mini-series based on best seller "The Long Road Home: A Story of War and Family"
The two-part series premiere, airing Nov. 7 on the National Geographic Channel, chronicles the events of April 4, 2004, when a platoon was ambushed in Sadr City, Baghdad, in an attack that came to be known as Black Sunday.
Sergeant Eric Bourquin, whose platoon was ambushed, recalled being under the impression that they were on a "peacekeeping mission."
“I was a very young man and we were just doing a patrol out there,” Sgt. Bourquin, who was 23 years-old during the ambush, told ABC News’ “Powerhouse Politics,” adding, “on the way back things changed dramatically for us.”
A total of eight soldiers lost their lives on Black Sunday, a battle during one of the deadliest periods of the Iraq War.
Actor and producer Jon Beavers who plays Sgt. Bourquin, thinks the new series will “affect the conversation.”
“It touches on the different humans, the different individuals that pay the cost of war, I think we as a country maybe need an update on what is the cost of war and who pays it,” Beavers, also known for his roles in NCIS (2003) and Gotham (2014) said.
Despite the raw emotions portrayed on-camera, Raddatz said the last night of shooting was the “most emotional” night on set, as the mother of a soldier who was lost on Black Sunday, walked the set replicating the scene where her son died, alongside Raddatz and the actor playing her son.
“The actor had his arm around her, I had my arm around her, holding hands, walking down that set, and I said ‘Do you want to come off, do you want to take a break?” Raddatz recalled of the walk, adding, “She said no, no, no ... I want to see what he experienced, I want to be where he was ... she looked up into the sky of the set and said this is the last thing he saw. But she said I think he was so brave.”
Following the series finale, the National Geographic Channel will air a documentary produced by ABC News with Iraq war veterans.
