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Units: 109th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment; Pennsylvania Army National Guard
Branch of Service: Army
War / Conflict: Iraq War, 2003-2011
"You don't have to buy a tank of gas for me, or shake my hand and say thank you, you can thank me by going out and volunteering in your community, and making a difference in someone else's life." (Video interview, 1:24:43)
A native of Huntersville, Pennsylvania, Shawn Miller grew up in a family with a long military history, but it wasn't until he reached college that he considered joining up. Seeking direction, discipline, and the experience he needed to pursue a career in photography, he enlisted in the Indiana National Guard in 2005. In 2008, he joined a small Public Affairs unit stationed in Pennsylvania, and they started gearing up for deployment. He left for Iraq in August 2010, where he spent the next twelve months photographing Army activities throughout Northern Iraq.
During the first months of his deployment, he pursued photojournalism assignments throughout the region, and had some freedom to follow his nose in looking for interesting assignments. Miller found deep fulfillment in being out in the field; in his oral history, he recounts the satisfaction of time spent out in the countryside while attached to an infantry platoon, taking photos by day and editing them by the light of a campfire at night. The latter half of his time in country was harder for him; he was assigned to a more managerial role and a desk at the division headquarters, and wound up butting heads with leadership.
Miller's deployment was life-changing, and his homecoming and re-acclimatization to civilian life was complicated. As he relates in his oral history interview, “To me, I hit pause for a year, and I deployed, and I expected everything to be the same when I came home, but everyone else back here went on with their lives.” In the years since his return from Iraq, he has grappled with making sense of his experience and defining his identity outside of the military, as well as feelings of isolation and guilt. His involvement with several veterans' organizations dedicated to bridging the civilian-veteran divide, such as Team Red White and Blue and The Mission Continues, has helped him find connection and meaning.
Prior to their deployment, Miller's unit underwent training at Fort Indiantown Gap, Pennsylvania, and with the 3rd Infantry Division at Fort Irwin, California, where they finessed their ability to work together and awaited orders, which arrived in late 2009. While he had hoped to go to Afghanistan, the unit instead received orders for Iraq, just as combat operations there were declared "officially over."
At the time of Miller's arrival in Iraq, the Army's emphasis was on training Iraqi troops to take control of their country after the departure of the US military. Many of his photos depict these training activities at Ghuzlani Warrior Training Center outside of Mosul and at Kirkush Military Training Base and Forward Operating Base Normandy in Diyala Province.
A handful of Miller's photographs depict Iraqi civilians and street life in cities such as Mosul and Muqdadiyah, and while typically he didn't interact much with civilians, the experience of witnessing these scenes affected him profoundly. Capturing the forlorn expression of a small child--who was born into a war-torn country, and had known little else--caused him to reflect on the impact of the conflict on the people of Iraq. His deployment enlarged his perspective and worldview, and as he notes in his oral history interview, he grew as a lot as a person during his time overseas.
While his time in Iraq was relatively placid in comparison to those who had deployed before him--not once did he have any reason to fire his rifle--but he still grappled with the grueling reality of life in a war zone, with the constant possibility of mortar attacks and the uncertainty of knowing the enemy's identity. Activities on base, such as concerts and holiday meals, helped to relieve the tension, but he drew the most comfort from the downtime he spent with his buddies, smoking cigars and a hookah on the rooftop of his living quarters and watching bootleg DVDs.
