Operation: Zeus

Telling the story of this generations' Veterans. End warfighter Suicide.

[operationzeus]

Operation Zeus: The Return by Jeff Nagy and Andrew W Nunn

So we're about as ready as we'll ever be to share what we're about to go do.  In about two weeks, Jeff/abunagy and Andrew andrewwadenunn are returning to Iraq to provide desperately needed trauma medicine and stress resilience training to Iraqi and Kurdish journalists covering the ongoing civil war there.  We will also be documenting these Journalists, as well as members of the Kurdish and Iraqi armed forces, and civilian populations.  

As you may have heard, Jihadists from the Islamic State are attacking Kurds and Iraqi's, taking over every city that they come across.  For this reason, prices for transportation, lodging and security have been massively inflated.  We need your support, so that we can do good things for good people, who simply want to live free, and continue our valuable research on trauma, stress, and resiliency.

Please share this as far and wide as possible, as every penny that we can gather will be of tremendous help.  We will be airing live stream updates from the ground every few nights, as well as fielding questions about the current situation there for our top supporters.  Please do not hesitate to contact Jeff or Andrew if you have any questions.

[andrewwadenunn-blog]

Please follow my project @operationzeus for an important announcement tomorrow.

[soldierporn]

US Army Sergeant First Class Matthew I. Leggett. 20 AUG 2014.

Died in Kabul, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered during an enemy attack. Leggett was assigned to Headquarters and Headquarters Battalion, XVIII Airborne Corps out of Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

[andrewwadenunn-blog]

Operation Iraqi Afterparty - a photoessay by Andrew W Nunn and Jeff Nagy. Coming soon as a limited edition zine and hardcover book.

[operationzeus]

Death of a Fort Hood Soldier

FORT HOOD, Texas -- Fort Hood officials have released the name of a Soldier who died Aug. 13 from an apparent gunshot wound in Killeen, Texas.

Sgt. Triston James Johnson, 23, whose home of record is listed as Houston, entered active duty service in October 2009 as a combat engineer. He was assigned to Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, since November 2012.

Johnson deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation New Dawn from April 2010 to March 2011.

Johnson's awards and decorations include two Army Commendation Medals, Army Achievement Medal, Army Good Conduct Medal, National Defense Service Medals, Iraq Campaign medals with campaign star, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, Army Service Ribbon, and Overseas Service Medal.

Circumstances surrounding this incident are currently under investigation.

[andrewwadenunn-blog]

Units in the Army have a legacy. The last unit I was in, and the one I felt most attached to was A Company 1/6 and its legacy goes something like this: War of 1812, Mexican War, American Civil War, Indian Wars, War with Spain, Philippine-American War, Mexican Expedition, World War I, World War II, Vietnam War, Panama, War in Southwest Asia, and of course The War in Iraq.

The photograph and card above show a practice called “death cards”. Death cards became a wartime tradition during Vietnam and were featured in Francis Ford Coppola’s film Apocalypse Now.

[schuetzengrabenmints-deactivate]

Then why did you enlist?

Because I was an idiot.

[andrewwadenunn-blog]

Every day, local journalists in Iraq put their lives on the line to cover events as they unfold. Within the past two weeks, two young Kurdish photographers we know personally have been injured or have received death threats. These courageous journalists do this without any preparedness training for medical trauma that might impact themselves or their colleagues.

Talking Eyes Media is facilitating a training for up to 20 local journalists in Iraqi Kurdistan this September. The workshop will be conducted by a trained military medic with three tours in Iraq, three Kurdish medical doctors, and several journalists with experience in hazardous environments—all volunteering their time and expertise. Participants will also receive potentially life saving First Aid kits.

The workshop and supplies can be achieved for less than $6000. Please support this urgent need by making a donation here.

[thedogtagchronicles]

Veterans on Aug 10: It can be tough readjusting to civilian life.

Everyone: OH MY GOD YOU HAVE PTSD! YOU ARE GOING TO GO CRAZY AND KILL PEOPLE. I DON’T FEEL SAFE WITH YOU AROUND. WE SHOULD MAKE SURE YOU DON’T HAVE ANY GUNS. YOU DON;T GET ANY SYMPATHY BECAUSE THIS WAS...

[50or60oramilliondifferentth-blog]

In 2003 I lived on top of a mountain in Northern Iraq, outside of a town called As’Sherqat, on a patrol base which was the main entrance of an old Iraqi weapons depot. There was a tribe of Bedouin herders who lived in these beautiful tents in the valley below our patrol base. There were also Kurds who were living on our patrol base.

Our mission was to patrol MSR Tampa between Bayji and Mosul, so that’s what we did for the most part. There were also Blackwater contractors there who would blow up tons of weapons, bombs and ammo left over in the bunkers.

It was a quiet place most of the time. Nights and skies that you wouldn’t believe. A deep blue sky with stars I had never seen before. Mountains broke the skyline like black teeth of the earth, taking a bite out of the stars. In the valley you could see campfires around the Bedouin tents and a few stray lights far, far off in the distance. The silence was only interrupted by the sounds of yourself and maybe the wind. Brutally cold nights compared to the scorching days.

I didn’t interact with the locals as much as I wished I could. It was a complicated situation then. I was a Soldier, and the only healthcare provider for 68 other soldiers on that mountain, so I was very busy. I did get to interact with them occasionally as a healthcare provider, and even ate a feast with them as a guest once. I often wonder what ever happened to those Kurds and Bedouins.

With what is happening to the Yezidi and Kurdish people, I find myself remembering more and more how fucking amazingly beautiful those mountains are, and then the people.

And then regret. And then sadness.

[soldierporn]

US Army Staff Sergeant Girard D. Gass, Jr. 3 AUG 2014.

Died in Jalalabad Air Field Hospital, Afghanistan, from a non-combat related incident while on patrol in Nangarhar Province, Afghanistan. Gass was assigned to 1st Battalion, 3rd Special Forces Group out of Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

[bobbycaputo]

Inventories of war: soldiers’ kit from 1066 to 2014

Over the course of almost two centuries, the gear in a soldier’s kit has changed quite significantly. The photographer Thom Atkinson documented thirteen of these kits, ranging from a huscarl at the Battle of Hastings in 1066 to a close-support sapper in the Royal Engineers from 2014, in a Hypebeast Essentials style. The series, published on Telegraph UK, is called Soldiers Inventories, and it’s serious history porn.

(Continue Reading)

[schadenfreezers]

[aaronfunandmental-deactivated20]

Jesus fucking this though

[operationzeus]

Please help this Soldier get his life back together. Anything you can give is helpful, this man is starting over from square one.

[andrewwadenunn-blog]

#tbt #sixwordwar combo. “When did you sleep last?” … “Idunno.” Shannon, Ireland January, 2009 Our flight from Kuwait broke down in Shannon, Ireland and we got put up in a fairly nice hotel, but we couldn’t leave, and we couldn’t drink. Many of us were experiencing civilian life again for the first time, following awful traumatic experiences. We found ways around it, and drank lots of room service wine. Sleep was still so hard to come by. There were 4 men from my unit, and although we all had seperate rooms, we stayed together in one, with two beds, and chain smoked and ordered room service. Talked, cried, talked, got drunk, drank coffee, talked, and I think at some point we went swimming… #50or60oramilliondifferentthings

[schuetzengrabenmints-deactivate]

every day, every hour, I give less and less of a shit about the military

[aaronfunandmental-deactivated20]

We would choose to. You think not joining the military is a PRIVILEGE? fuck that. Even those of us who are desperately poor can't join we'll have our loyalty questioned. Or be asked to kill our own people. Your ability to join is in itself white privilege. Don't you dare guilt trip those who suffered from you joining up for pointing out that just feeling bad doesn't erase the harm done. If you really cares for POC and not just your own guilty conscience you wouldn't be acting like this.

Reblogged w/o comment.

[aaronfunandmental-deactivated20]

I hadn’t planned in responding to anymore of the anon’s bullshit, but I’ll be damned if I allow an anonymous coward to erase the hard fucking work I’ve done.

You’re right. Feeling bad DOESNT erase the harm I did as a participant in the Army and the illegal and immoral invasion and occupation in Iraq. Nothing ever will.

Not the irreversible brain damage I sustained, or the crushed vertebrae, or all the hearing in my right ear, nor the PTSD. It doesn’t erase the damage I inflicted on innocent people in a country I didn’t belong in.

But I have dedicated whatever life I have left to organizing against militarism, against colonialism, and against war.

That’s why I have partnerships with Iraqis to work together toward repairing the carnage I helped inflict.

That’s why I’m an active, and influential member of some of the biggest antiwar orgs in the United States, and work for free at one of only TWO functioning Anti-War Coffee Houses left in the United States.

That’s why I use my leverage as a veteran to speak to people about the horrors of militarism, because right or wrong, the average American listens more to vets who speak out against militarism than civilians.

If you want to crucify me for a decision I made when I was 19 years old and facing homelessness, you go right on ahead.

I spent a year in the war. I’ve spent the last FIVE actively engaged in the antiwar movement, in partnership with antimilitarist, anticolonialist organizers all over the world.

Your appraisal of me is inaccurate, undeserved, and based on false assumptions about my choices, actions, motives, and beliefs. But then, you’re s person hiding behind Anon to make wildly inaccurate and self-contradictory criticisms of me.