Army of One

In Army Of One, photo journalist Elisabeth Real tells the story of six American veterans whose lives have been irreversibly altered by the war in Iraq. All but one of the veterans have been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Between 2006 and 2013, Real photographed and interviewed these young men, trying to uncover what they went through and how, in turn, this affected them on returning home, as they re-connected with families and tried to make lives, away from the army. The war in Iraq began in March 2003 and lasted until December 2011; 2.16 million U.S. troops were deployed in combat zones in 2001-10. 4,500 US service people were killed, many more committed suicide as a consequence of their deployment and many thousands more returned home with PTSD. A single PTSD diagnosis could cost $1.5 million in disability compensation over a soldier’s lifetime. Elisabeth Real breaks down numbers, focusing on the individual soldier: the lone “Army Of One”, many of whom feel this means that they have been forgotten, as soldiers and as human beings.