Summary
Signs of simmering insurgency appear in some of [Heidi Schuerger]'s images as well. "No for USA" is imprinted on a mural in which a red-and-white-striped skull is being smashed by a fist emblazoned with Iraq's Saddam-era flag. "Collateral damage" resulting from the U.S. invasion has a human face in a portrait of a boy burnt and scarred by a piece of American ordnance that had exploded when he picked it up.
A native of Westminster West, Vermont, Schuerger enlisted in the Marines in 1988 when she was living in Massachusetts. "I'd thought about going to college, and I also wanted to get some job skills that I knew the military could provide," she explains. Her choice of the Marines was purely happenstance, however. She says she went first to a Navy recruiting station but was repulsed by the clouds of cigarette smoke inside it. An Army recruiter handed Schuerger a CD, told her to watch it, and then walked away. At the Air Force office she visited next, "The guy behind the desk whined a lot," she recalls. Schuerger was finally wooed and won by a Marine recruiter who firmly shook her hand and asked what skills she wanted to acquire.A Marine commander must sometimes decide in less than a second, "Do you ask questions first or do you use whatever is in your power to ensure the safety of your team?" Schuerger continues. "I wouldn't be surprised if what happened in Haditha was that one person started shooting and after that it's, 'Oh, my God, it wasn't what I thought it was.'" While it may be the least experienced soldier who opens fire in such a situation, she says, "The fault ultimately lies with the senior person who's present."See the full content of this document
Extract
Shots Seen 'Round the World
Heidi Schuerger, images from Iraq, and works by Iraqi artists. Ilsley Library, Middlebury. Through June.
Vermonter Heidi Schuerger deftly captures Iraq's complexities and contradictions in the immediate aftermath of the American invasion of March 2003, when she was a U.S. Marine gunnery sergeant. A sampling of her images is currently on d...See the full content of this document
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