In 2007, researcher Larry Minear published, through Tufts University's Feinstein International Center, a study of the National Guard’s role in the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq. Minear found abundant source material for his study in the collections of the Veterans History Project (VHP), drawing on dozens of interviews with Guard personnel and active duty soldiers and on their photographs. As part of its “Experiencing War” series, VHP highlights some of the collections he employed in a web presentation on the Global War on Terror.
“The Global War on Terror has demanded much of the men and women serving in the National Guard—like no other conflict in American history,” said Minear.
The presentation covers four aspects of the citizen-soldier experience: attitudes toward service and the war; dangers and dilemmas of combat; re-entry to civilian life; and impacts of the experience. It captures the split in guardsmen’s lives between their civilian careers and their part-time Guard commitment, which, for their deployment overseas, became their full-time jobs.
“Experiencing War,” a regular feature on the VHP Web site, highlights collections with similar themes. Features have included “Women at War,” “African Americans at War,” and “Military Intel.”