A Firsthand Report on the Wounds of War

In January 2006, Woodruff, a lawyer who had switched to journalism in hopes of becoming a foreign correspondent, had just begun as co-anchor, with Elizabeth Vargas, of ABC's "World News." The plan was for them to alternate on the road.

"Bob was on top of the world," Jon Banner, executive producer of "World News," says on the program. "He was riding this wave."

When Woodruff arrived in Baghdad for his seventh visit since 2002, he and three crew members embedded themselves with an Iraqi unit to examine whether the country's soldiers were ready to assume more of the burden from the U.S. military.

Woodruff was taping part of his report Jan. 29, standing in the turret of a tank, when an improvised explosive device, or IED, went off. He and cameraman Doug Vogt, who was less seriously injured, were airlifted to a field hospital in Balad. Woodruff was in surgery 37 minutes after the explosion.

A CT scan of Woodruff's skull taken two days later showed rocks and debris lodged in his face and neck. One half-dollar-size rock narrowly missed severing a key artery. The explosion damaged the part of the brain that controls speech.

Woodruff continued his recuperation at Bethesda Naval Medical Center. In the documentary, he begins to cry when he returns to the hospital months later to thank the staff, and his wife shows him the bed where he was confined.

Woodruff is seen with his four children, struggling in the early months of his recovery to relearn everyday words. Looking at flash cards, he cannot remember what a hammer is called until prompted with the letter H. He struggles, with the children's help, to pronounce "belt buckle." At first he could not lift his left arm.

When physicians gave Lee a pessimistic prognosis, she recalled saying: "You don't know my Bob. He's a fighter."

His progress, which stunned his doctors, contrasts sharply with that of the other brain-damaged veterans who struggle to speak when Woodruff interviews them and their families. Some of that footage is hard to watch.

The ABC program says the veterans receive good care at the Veterans Administration's regional medical centers but that local VA hospitals are often ill-prepared to deal with traumatic brain injuries. The patients have, in the bureaucratic language of an inspector general's report, "sub-optimal access to care." One young man, who had been making progress at a larger VA facility, is seen losing some speech and motor skills as a paperwork snafu blocks his admission to a hospital back home.

VA Secretary Jim Nicholson tells Woodruff that his agency is devoting considerable resources to brain-injured patients. But the program charges that military officials are withholding information on the extent of such injuries among Iraq veterans, and that many soldiers also suffer from "invisible" brain injuries that go undiagnosed for long periods. A veterans' advocate accuses the Pentagon of issuing "gag orders" on discussing traumatic brain injuries, and Woodruff reports that the department declined to release some information for "operational security reasons."

Woodruff, for his part, still fumbles occasionally for the right word. At Monday's press briefing, he said he had "news" when he meant "knowledge," then stopped and corrected himself.

Woodruff said he did not regret having gone to Iraq, but that he would "have to be an idiot" not to think about what he could have done differently.

Asked if he would return to Baghdad, Woodruff refused to rule it out, but ABC News President David Westin did it for him. Given Woodruff's brain injury, Westin said, "it would be the height of recklessness. . . . It would be insane." Westin praised Woodruff's "resilience and strength of character."

Woodruff's facial scars are no longer visible; doctors glued a synthetic piece of skull where the missing piece had been. He plays tennis, swims and skis -- limited by blindness in the upper-right corner of both eyes -- but his wife has barred him from basketball and soccer.

While he may try to return to anchoring one day, Woodruff said, "I love reporting, and that is plenty for me." He plans to keep focusing on the problems of veterans.

"Will I get back to 100 percent? Probably not," Woodruff said. "But if I get in the 90s, that's pretty good."