Americans awoke Jan. 30 to sobering news. Bob Woodruff, who took over last month as co-anchor for ABC's "World News Tonight," was seriously injured along with his cameraman, Doug Vogt.

Unlike many who have been injured in Iraq, Mr. Woodruff was different: he is a respected journalist from whom millions of Americans receive their evening news. Mr. Vogt is a three-time Emmy Award-winning cameraman. Since being injured, American media has followed them from Iraq to Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland.

As I read the online news that day, I noticed that the articles from The New York Times and The Los Angeles Times covered the injuries and careers of these men as well as the kidnapping of Jill Carroll, a freelance journalist for the Christian Science Monitor.

As I was sipping coffee and reading the news, I noticed something peculiar: none of these news stories about Mr. Woodruff mentioned the injuries of the 4th Infantry Division soldiers who were escorting him when the roadside bomb exploded. ABC News did honor the soldiers who saved his life by performing first aid and calling in the medical evacuation as the "Person of the Week" Feb. 3. It was not until days later, however, that the injuries of the soldiers escorting Mr. Woodruff were reported.

As we turn on the news or read online, the stories are similar: "X number of soldiers were killed and/or injured in Iraq and/or Afghanistan. Due to families not being notified, no names have been released yet." On occasion, the news will report the names of those who died a few days later, though the incidents in which they were injured are long forgotten.

What the media seems to forget is the fact that every number has a face and a story. Most major media outlets are not reporting these stories.

According to the Department of Defense, there have been 2,249 soldiers killed in Iraq and 254 in Afghanistan. That means there are 2,503 stories behind every one of these numbers. In Wisconsin, we have lost three soldiers in Afghanistan and 50 in Iraq as of Feb. 4.

Behind each one of these statistics there is a story, and the media has been in general deaf to these stories. When I watch MSNBC in the morning, there will typically be a story about Mr. Woodruff's condition and one concerning Ms. Carroll's fate. Only very rarely will there be a personal story concerning a soldier who died in Iraq.

Back in Madison, there have been better efforts to report the stories of fallen soldiers. The Wisconsin State Journal reported on Nov. 8 about the funeral of Sgt. 1st Class Matthew Kading, a Madison native who died in Iraq last Oct. 31. Sgt. 1st Class Kading was an electric engineer who was repairing schools, hospitals and public buildings in Iraq when he was killed by a roadside bomb. The article gave the statistic of his death a human face, not a sterile statistic that a news anchor in Atlanta or New York has been reading over and over for the past four years.

The national media has forgotten that those serving in Iraq and Afghanistan are men and women — people just like us. David Brooks wrote in The New York Times Nov. 27: "Despite all the amazing things people are achieving in Iraq, we don't tell their stories back here."

There have been efforts on a local and national level to tell the stories of those who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans Association has a nationwide college tour where veterans talk about the war to students. The State Veterans Museum has been collecting oral histories and artifacts from those who have served in the military, and campus veterans groups provide support to those students who have fought in the desert. The Badger Herald told the story of Michael and Derek Hahn, two brothers who served in Iraq. Michael Hahn stated in the article, "There is a human side to this mission [in Iraq]."

And it is that human side that the national media is missing. Mr. Woodruff's injuries and Ms. Carroll's kidnapping should give us the awareness to seek out these real, human stories of this war that the media has forgotten. Every vet has a story, and every flag-draped coffin that comes off of a C-130 has a hero inside whose story deserves to be told.

The news of these wars should not focus only on ever-increasing statistics reported by those who are thousands of miles away or in the cushy Green Zone. The real news story is inside the head and heart of every veteran who served in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Jeff Carnes ([email protected]) is a senior majoring in linguistics.