Days of our Lives to honor veterans

Days of our Lives will pay tribute to real-life veterans in an upcoming episode. The storyline will weave together a fictional storyline with the true stories of servicemen and women.

Days of our Lives will honor current and retired U.S. troops by dedicating an upcoming episode to veterans returning home and dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder.

In the episode, slated to air in January 2012, actual veterans will appear as themselves in the episode, which focuses on psychiatrist Marlena Evans, played by Deidre Hall, taking Matthew Ashford's Jack Deveraux to a veteran's hospital and visiting with patients struggling with returning home and their memories of war.

A journalist who was kidnapped and held in Afghanistan while on assignment, Jack has returned to his home in Salem, but struggles to fit back in to his former life and face the reality of what he was put through, leading to issues dealing with stress and the pressure of strained relationships with his ex-wife and daughter.

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Captain Leslie Nicole Smith, a former Army Public Affairs Officer, who retired due to a blood virus she contracted in Bosnia will also appear in the episode. As a result of the virus she contracted, Smith lost her left leg, complete vision in her left eye, and some of the vision in her right eye. She currently speaks around the country to veterans and other victims of post-traumatic stress disorder.

"With President Obama's recent announcement that we will bring home our troops we thought it was an important issue to address and let our family of viewers know we care about them," said co-executive Producer Greg Meng.

In 2008, ABC's All My Children cast Iraqi war vet JR Martinez in a storyline.