Go behind the lines! Bringing viewers compelling, real-world stories of heroism, military strategy, technological breakthroughs and turning points in history, Discovery Communications, Inc. transitioned its Discovery Wings Channel to the Military Channel on Monday, January 10, 2005. The network’s revamped slate of series and specials is designed to take viewers “behind the lines” to tell personal stories and offer in-depth explorations of military technology, battlefield strategy, aviation and history. wings.discovery.com
PROGRAMMING HIGHLIGHTS FEBRUARY 2005
SPECIALS
Times are Eastern Standard Time (EST)
AN OCEAN AWAY
World Premiere: Thursday, February 9, 8PM
In 1968, U.S. Marine Lt. Donald Matocha was killed in a firefight while leading a recon platoon near Khe Sahn. The battle was so fierce that his body could not be retrieved. For years, Donald’s sisters awaited the return of his body, but like hundreds of other casualties of the war in Vietnam, it remained missing. When news of the discovery of Donald’s remains came unexpectedly over three decades later, it raised new questions for the sisters. To understand what really happened to their brother so long ago, they embark on a journey that brings them first to Hawaii, to meet the U.S. military’s forensic specialists who identified their brother, and ultimately to Vietnam. There they are joined by surviving members of Lt. Matocha’s fateful patrol and together they meet a remarkable former enemy and revisit the hilltop that changed all of their lives.
BATTLEFIELD DIARIES: JUST ONE MAN
World Premiere: Thursday, February 13, 10PM
On April 2, 1972, an American combat jet, call sign Bat 21, was blasted apart by a North Vietnamese missile. Of the six men on that plane, just one survived – the navigator, Lt. Col. Iceal “Gene” Hambleton. Seconds after he ejected, the wounded craft burst into a blinding fireball. That explosion set off a chain of events that would become the largest and most controversial rescue operation for a downed crewman in that war and would ultimately pose the question, “What is the value of one man’s life.”
RAID ON THE REACTOR
World Premiere: Thursday, February 23, 8PM
For the first time ever, the Israeli government is releasing top secret documents detailing the secret plans, strategies and implementation of their heralded raid on the Iraqi nuclear facility in 1981, one of the most daring and successful military strikes ever. Faced with a nuclear threat from Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, Israel resolved to eliminate a French-built, Baghdad-based reactor producing weapons-grade plutonium. Risking certain international condemnation and the loss of aid from the United States, the IDF utilized their eight newly delivered F-16 fighter jets to bomb the reactor in the heart of Baghdad. The story of the planning of the raid is just as gripping as the raid itself and includes tales of international spies, targeted assassinations, blackmail and prostitution – everything one would expect in a fictional spy novel, only this story is true.