February 2012
10 posts
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3rd Precinct
3rd Precinct
While waiting in the lobby of the Minneapolis Third Precinct Police Department, I looked at a tribute to officers of the precinct killed in the line of duty dating back to 1915. A dark, tinted glass, divided me from the front desk duty officer, monitoring flat screens showing camera angles around building. Once escorted...
2nd Precinct
By Andrew Cox
I arrived at the Minneapolis Second Precinct Police Station excited and starry eyed for my police ride along, nervous about the unknown night ahead of me. I promptly met Sergeant Madson, who instantly sized me up and let me know he didn’t trust anyone but cops. Off to a great start, I sweated through his interview, where I couldn’t answer correctly. Luckily, I somehow passed....
2 tags
34th CAB
“We are necessary to keep the Army going. We move troops and supplies, and aren’t limited by terrain.”
By Andrew Cox
“Leading these men and women is great. It’s a great feeling to come to work everyday and see the amazing things our soldiers can do,” says Colonel Michael Huddleston, commander of the Minnesota National Guard’s 34th Combat Aviation Brigade (CAB), which flies the UH-60 Blackhawks...
January 2012
3 posts
4 tags
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December 2011
13 posts
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Homecoming
“We are glad to be home after completing a successful mission,” said Captain Nathan Foster, commander of Bravo Company.
By Andrew Cox
St. Cloud, Minn. - Seventy soldiers from the Minnesota Army National Guard returned home one day before Thanksgiving from a year deployment to Iraq.
In a military hanger at the St. Cloud airport a massive American flag hung above family and friends waiting...
November 2011
6 posts
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U.S. Navy War Artist Monica Allen-Perin
By Andrew Cox
Monica Allen-Perin developed an interest in painting early in life and never turned back. She attended the California College of Arts and Crafts and also earned a Masters of Art degree from State University of New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology. She has taught Art History and Studio Art at the University of Maryland in Italy. When not painting for the Navy, she paints the...
7 tags
U.S. Navy War Art
By Andrew Cox
War artist Morgan Wilbur has painted many scenes, from Navy rescue operations and ships in various settings, to Navy surgeons desperately treating wounded troops in Iraq.
A former sailor, Wilbur told Marine Corps Times, “I want to tell the story of what our people are doing.” They have been doing a lot. This past decade, the Navy has supported continuous combat operations in...
October 2011
3 posts
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American Insurgent
“We could talk forever about the repercussions of me coming home, but it really made me feel like nobody’s telling anyone the truth—and not just in regards to war.”
By Andrew Cox
In the middle of war, Neal Saunders made a rap album called Live From Iraq. He made the album with fellow soldiers naming the group 4th25, pronounced fourth quarter, in reference to the possibility of it being the...
8 tags
Homecoming
“The burdens on military families currently are unfair, unrealistic, and too often shattering.”
By Andrew Cox
Matt Gallagher joined the U.S. Army in 2005, commissioned as a second lieutenant in a cavalry scout platoon in the 25th Infantry Division. He deployed to Iraq for fifteen months in 2007 with a Stryker platoon as part of the “Surge” force and as the war strategy was...
September 2011
2 posts
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War Art Down Under
By Andrew Cox
Conway Bown is an Australian Army captain who has served twenty-one years as a helicopter pilot in the Army. He served as the official war artist for the Australians in his last tour to Iraq in 2006, becoming the first active duty Australian soldier sent into a warzone as an artist since the Korean War.
Australia has a long tradition of sending non-uniformed artists into battle. ...
3 tags
Assignment Afghanistan
“I was just in Sangin with surge troops and the Taliban were on the run or hiding. They don’t know how to strike effectively where the surge troops have brought the fight to them.“
By Andrew Cox
U.S. Journalist Elliott D. Woods just returned from Helmand Province, Afghanistan. He embedded with surge troops, going out on patrols, returning dirty and exhausted, passing out in...
August 2011
3 posts
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AfPak Hand Program
“It really opens a door when you are able to go up to someone and say hello, ask how they are, ask about their family, say your name, ask their name, ask where they live and what they do for work.”
By Andrew Cox
Lieutenant Colonel Diana Staneszewski is a United States Marine assigned to Headquarters Marine Corps, serving in the AfPak Hands program. She has served in Iraq and...
3 tags
Invasion Art
“It’s hard not to come back and look at people and think they are just civilians, they don’t know what’s going on—you come back and you’re just angry.”
By Andrew Cox
Jim O’Neill served in the U.S. Army for four years as a bridge engineer with the 814th Engineer Company. He deployed to Kuwait in February 2003 and six weeks later received the assault orders into Iraq as part of the initial...
4 tags
Combat Paper Project
“Most of society has little or no exposure to the military, but they are wondering—they want to know what it is like.”
By Andrew Cox
Drew Cameron joined the Army in August of 2000 and served with Bravo Battery, 6th Battalion, 27th Field Artillery Regiment, stationed out of Fort Sill, Oklahoma. He deployed to Iraq in 2003, operating out of Camp Anaconda near Balad, Iraq. His active duty career...
July 2011
15 posts
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Max Uriarte is Terminal Lance
“I was the kid in school that was always good at drawing and the other kids would come to me if they wanted something drawn really well.”
By Andrew Cox
Max Uriarte was a U.S. Marine from 2006 to 2010. He was a 0351, Assultman and deployed to Iraq twice. He is the creator of the popular comic strip Terminal Lance, which humorously depicts life as a “Grunt Lance Corporal” in the...
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War Art Down Under
“What I want to be able to do is have my work hanging on a wall and have a soldier stand in front of it with his wife or parents and say, ‘That is exactly what it was like when I was over there, that could have been me.’”
By Andrew Cox
Captain Conway Bown has been a helicopter pilot for twenty-one years in the Australian Army. He has deployed twice to East Timor and once to Iraq where he...
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Official Devil Dog War Art
“War zones are not attractive, but they are visually very interesting—there is always something unique to draw.”
By Andrew Cox
Staff Sergeant Kristopher Battles is the official combat artist of the Marine Corps. He signed up for the Marine Corps Reserves in 1986, went to boot camp that summer as a Reservist and was a member of the 24th Marine Regiment in Kansas City. He was a computer...
3 tags
Captain Winter Camping In Iraq
“It is kind of like camping, where you are adjusting. In Iraq, you are always adjusting.”
By Andrew Cox
Captain Cameron Winter is a future operations officer with the 34th Infantry Division of the Minnesota National Guard. He has been a solider for twelve years, starting out enlisted and becoming an officer after graduating from the University of Minnesota Army ROTC program. He...
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War Artist Victor Juhasz
“What struck me—in Iraq and Afghanistan—was how glad the troops were to see someone from the States.”
By Andrew Cox
Victor Juhasz has been creating humorous caricatures and illustrations since 1974. He has a long list of clients including The New York Times, Time, Newsweek, Rolling Stone, The Wall Street Journal, Esquire, GQ, Men’s Journal, The Washington Post and many more. His...
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Canuck War Art
“…I’m more interested in using art as a way to make people care about things they don’t realize they want to care about.”
By Andrew Cox
Scottish-Canadian artist Richard Johnson has traveled to Iraq and Afghanistan to tell the everyday stories of life in a conflict zone through drawing. He embedded with U.S. Marines during the invasion of Iraq and has patrolled with the...
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Afghanistan Opens Your Eyes
“The technological differences in capabilities are tremendously extreme. For anti-coalition forces, it must be like fighting aliens from the future.”
By Andrew Cox
U.S. Marine Corps Captain Colin Harman deployed to Afghanistan from June to December 2010, primarily in Helmand and Kandahar Provinces. He served as an advisor to the Afghan National Army Counter-Improvised Explosive...
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The Godfather of Modern War Art
“Part of what an artist tries to do is wake people up. The Joe Bonham Project is a group of artists saying wake up to these guys and their experiences.”
By Andrew Cox
Michael Fay is a retired Marine with two tours in each of Iraq and Afghanistan. He was the official combat artist of the Marine Corps from 2000 to 2010. Recently, he has been behind the creation of Still in the Fight...
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War Correspondent Michael Yon Can't Stop Embedding
“Most of the hardcore war reporters burned out years ago. The war has been going on for nearly a decade.”
By Andrew Cox
Michael Yon is a war correspondent and former U.S. Special Forces soldier. He has won numerous awards for his reporting from Iraq and Afghanistan and according to the New York Times he has spent more time than any other journalist embedded with combat units in...
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Drawing For the Bros with LCpl Rob Bates
“If the closest they’ve been to combat is playing Call of Duty, then no. No amount of literature in the world will teach an individual about war until they’ve experienced it.”
By Andrew Cox
Rob Bates is a Marine infantryman, Combat Artist, member of the International Society of War Artists, and has two combat tours in Afghanistan. He graduated from Art Instruction School in 2006....