These photographs are a sample of a two part portrait series of United States National Guard soldiers from Pennsylvania. In July of 2006 they finished serving a yearlong tour in Ramadi, the violent capital of Al Anbar province in Western Iraq. The unit has now returned home safely. These photos capture the members of Animal Company 3rd 103rd Armor both in their military work environments and their civilian jobs. Sometimes these two roles have a lot in common. Other times they could not be more different. As an embedded photographer with Animal Company in the summer of 2006, I had the opportunity to spend time with these soldiers. They lived in harsh and dangerous conditions, far from the relative safety and comfort of the Green Zone or the sprawling “super bases.” While they were in Iraq, the Sunni insurgency was at its height and they lived hundreds of feet away from it; I was witness to how they worked, slept, laughed, fought and often ran for their lives. These brave men and women lived on a 400 by 400 yard piece of dusty desert aptly named Corregidor. In addition to the formal portraits that I shot during the month, I also tried to capture their daily lives and environment in the most unforgiving city in the world. There have been thousands of photographs published of American servicemen and women over the past five year's, but very few have shown who they actually are outside of a military context, what they do and how they live when they are not serving the country. They are our doctors, police officers, teachers, scientists, students, truck drivers and most importantly, our neighbors. The goal of this project is to bridge the gap between these service men and women and the average American citizen, who may not know anyone in the military. I want to show the complex human lives behind the uniforms. One thing is clear though, the days of the weekend warrior are gone and the citizen soldier are here. *Authors note: Additionally as of August 2009, I have finished photographing the same group of soldiers and other members of their Battalion during their current deployment in Afghanistan and return to Iraq. - Bill Thomas |
