Anonymous combat veteran artwork from my local Vet Center

This artwork was made within the program "Artists for the Humanities" which is a nonprofit that provides art supplies for veterans to do artwork related to their experiences and then talk about it in group.
I am not a fan of this type of experience, but it does work for others.
The artwork that it produces is undeniably powerful, especially when coupled with the narratives.
These pieces were donated by their anonymous creators for public display.

Suffer the children; they pay the highest price in war. My painting is the memory I have from a young Iraqi boy who suffered extreme trauma from a blast.
He and his grandmother were brought to our ER. I was the lead medic on the boy. He was so terrified.
There was no interpreter so he was unable to understand us. I could see his terror.
We had to insert an airway through his mouth and into his lungs, but couldn't risk him losing consciousness so we paralyzed him.
I breathed for him until he was stable enough for surgery and he was off. I looked and saw my boots and the floor covered in his blood.
He was in surgery for hours. We gave him five units of blood.
I went to the bazaar and bought him some cheap comic books, a soccer jersey, and toys.
When I returned to the ER the next day I learned that radiology had missed a brain bleed. He started stroking that night, went into seizures, and he expired at another location.
I see his face in the crowds. I dream about that day. I see his eyes and his terror.

The red door was a door we had a hard time breaching... men inside were screaming "Allah hu Akbar!" over and over... it was the most scared I've ever been.
I was the first man in the stack and I almost couldn't find the courage to enter those doors.
It took us an hour and a half to breach them.
I killed one man on the way in and my other teammates killed three more.
The clover represents the cloverleaf highway system in Fallujah... I was in an IED there and lost my best friend Spc. Trevor Blummburg.
The city is Fallujah and it represents how horrible the fighting was there.

1970 A-shau Valley South Vietnam
Huey helicopter gunner HML 367 USMC
This little Vietnamese girl is about two at the time.
We were doing an insertion into a hot LZ.
During suppression fire the tracers lit the hooch on fire.
Insertion was made and we circled the zone to give fire support.
The grunts on the ground called us back in for a medevac.
When we touched down there was this little girl holding a big flower and sobbing uncontrollably.
It had started to rain. Her tears were black from the soot of the burning hooch.
Two grunts brought wounded to my door. It was the little girl's mother - I had probably shot her through the roof - I didn't know she was in there.
The mother would survive but for me and that little girl - that day will forever make me so, so sad that I caused such terrible horror.

I used to be passionate about golf. I enjoyed the smell of the grass, the sound of a good drive, the scenic beauty of the outdoors. With PTSD I have lost the enjoyment of things I love.
Golf has different holes that may be difficult or easy, somewhat like life. The game has taught me that if you keep trying you can eventually overcome the difficult holes and be successful.
I hope to find the enjoyment in life again.

I maintained five years of sobriety from alcohol but only switched addictions and began gambling.
Chaos, complete chaos.
Eventually depression sunk in and I chose to pick up a drink.
I was once again in Hell.
Now... I am at treatment and will take the necessary steps to get my life back in order and begin living once again.

Some of this same body of work was shown along with some of my own in the show WAR: RAW at the Madison Veteran's Museum a couple years back.
It was a powerful show that took a lot of courage from all of us veterans to be a part of, but in the end I know that it reached a lot of hearts and minds.
For me it is important to let other veterans know that you are not the only ones going through the personal hell that combat experiences have left you in.
It's a nasty struggle at times, but a lot of us are finding ways out and through to the other side.
However, we will never be afraid to go back into the darkness and pull out our brothers that need our help.