WASHINGTON - FURRY puppets from the children's television show 'Sesame Street' came to the headquarters of the world's biggest military machine on Wednesday to bring a message of hope for badly wounded US soldiers and their families.

A Pentagon auditorium felt more like a children's theatre as Sesame characters Elmo and Rosita evoked laughs and tears as they introduced a screening of a new television special that tells the stories of veterans returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

'Coming Home: Military families Cope with Change,' which is due to air on the PBS network on April 1, is hosted by Queen Latifah and portrays several American families whose fathers have come home with life-changing injuries, both visible and invisible.

'I took my first steps the same day my daddy did,' says a child of a father learning to use a prosthetic limb.

One parent talks about how his children were scared at the sight of him when he first came back from the war - without a leg.

And a mother recounts how her child could not grasp their father's brain injury and post-traumatic stress, telling her: 'Daddy doesn't look hurt.'

In one segment, a soldier's young son explains his dad will have his badly injured hand amputated to get a mechanical limb that will allow him to do more.

'He's going to have a lot more capability,' says the boy. -- AFP