Today, America has nearly 18 million living military veterans, from the “Greatest Generation” to people coming home from recent tours in Afghanistan and Iraq. They join the now-silent ranks of American veterans reaching back to our earliest conflict, the Revolutionary War.

The military is part of America’s founding story ─a project to which, as George Washington put it, every citizen owed “his personal services.” In war and in peace, what veterans have done in America’s name and how they have been treated when they return is woven into the fabric of the American story and has had a profound impact on our nation.

For those who have served, military service has been a transformative experience. What is that experience, and how does it change the people who have joined the ranks? And throughout the nation’s history, how have vets been perceived? Sometimes honored, and sometimes reviled, ignored or forgotten, veterans may re-enter civilian life to encounter a population that often has little or no knowledge of their experience.

This four-part film illuminates the veteran experience with a moving range of voices from today and across the arc of American history and is narrated by veterans Drew Carey, Senator Tammy Duckworth, Wes Studi and J.R. Martinez.