Friday, November 6, 2015

American Soldier

1).  The most powerful image is the one of the soldier sitting alone at a table in the mess hall - with a shaved head, and looking somewhat sullen.  They're all so young, and it hurts me to think that these kids are already learning how to fire guns and handle themselves in extremely harsh environments, such as war zones.  It's a wholly emotional picture, with the fact that he's alone and everyone else is sitting in groups.  It shows how lonely things can be.

2).  At home - image #1 to image #3.
      Basic training- image #4 to image #13
      In Iraq- image #14 to image #26

3).  The third set of images were the most powerful - the boys in war zones, in helicopters of army vans.  It makes me really, really sad.  Like...really sad, and I can't exactly explain why.  They're so young.

4).  All the images together tell a story - them as normal boys, them in training, them in war, them back home.  It's a sad and triumphant story (because of the last picture where they're back in home Denver).  They flow.

5).  They're usually in present tense.

6).  The captions help explain the photographs, and once you're educated on what's going on and you look back up at it, it seems to make more sense.  They help with the photo's story.

7).  Ian joined, and things didn't go very well, at first. He had a girlfriend back home, and a dad.  During his training, he started using drugs (though they were prescribed) and smoking cigarettes.  He was deployed, and he was the driver of the Humvee they used.  Things happen, and a lot of responsibility is placed on Ian (and everyone else).

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