Artists And Soldiers Team Up To Help Traumatized Veterans

Artists And Soldiers Team Up To Help Traumatized Veterans

In January 2006, two days before her second deployment to Iraq, 21-year-old Army specialist Suzanne Swift went AWOL. Arrested six months later at her Oregon home, Swift claimed she ran away because she suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder--and because she'd experienced months of sexual harassment from three men in her unit.

Last month, you might have seen Swift in Chicago: not the soldier-turned-activist herself, but her portrait. The Justseeds artists' cooperative and Iraq Veterans Against the War used Swift's image to illustrate a poster about military sexual trauma. It's one of 20 prints the two groups created for their collaboration Operation Exposure, which raises awareness of the redeployment of traumatized troops.

Popular in the Community

Close

What's Hot