New Book Illuminates the Loneliness and Isolation of Women at War
Since March of 2003, more than 160,500 women have served in the war in Iraq. More women have fought and died during this war than in any other since WWII, yet they still only account for one in ten soldiers. Many find themselves in virtual isolation among men.
This seclusion, combined with the military’s history of gender discrimination and the uniquely challenging conditions in Iraq, has resulted in a mounting epidemic of sexual abuse, physical degeneration, and emotional distress among many female soldiers.
Now in The Lonely Soldier: The Private War of Women Serving in Iraq, Helen Benedict explores the lives of these soldiers, following their stories from enlistment, through service, and back home again. A professor of journalism at Columbia University who has written extensively on women, race, and justice, Benedict interviewed 40 soldiers and veterans about their experiences in the military, specifically in Iraq. Through their first-hand accounts, she finds that while all of these women risk their lives each day, many are forced to wage a second war in secret, “against an enemy dressed in the same uniform.”
The Lonely Soldier centers on the stories of five courageous and diverse women who returned from war at very different stages of their lives:
- Mickiela Montoya is a Mexican-American woman who, at twenty-one years old, is just one year out of her tour in Iraq. Pregnant and living with her grandmother, she finds herself back in the same California town she was trying to escape when she first enlisted.
- Eli PaintedCrow, who felt strong cultural ties to the military because of her Native American heritage, is forty-six and recently retired from a twenty-two-year career in the army. Struggling with post-traumatic-stress, she is finding it difficult to get the help she needs. ·
- Jennifer Spranger had to leave Iraq for medical reasons, and has returned to her working-class hometown in the Midwest. But at just twenty-three, she is suffering from severe physical and emotional traumas that may be with her for life. ·
- Terris Dewalt-Johnson is thirty-seven and a sixteen-year veteran in the Army Reserve. An African-American mother of four, she completed a difficult tour in Iraq only to find that the war has changed her in ways even she can’t understand.
- Abbie Pickett is twenty-four and has been home from the war for nearly three years. Originally from Wisconsin, she is studying in London and still struggling to get her life back.
Each woman has a unique story to tell, but their experiences are rooted in the same injustices. Every day they put their lives on the line for their country and their fellow soldiers, but what they received in return has been, until now, unspeakable.
Through their stories, Benedict reveals how they face the complexities of war while struggling every day with issues of misogyny, class, race, homophobia, sexism, and untreated post-traumatic stress disorder.
Benedict also exposes abuses by military recruiters, the dangers of high risk vaccinations, inadequate training and resources for soldiers fighting abroad, contaminated and unsanitary conditions, the lack of benefits for veterans, and increasing incidents of rape – with as many as one in three female soldiers serving in Iraq being sexually assaulted by their own comrades.
Weaving together the poignant and often grueling accounts of the war in Iraq, Benedict offers new insight into the lives of women in the military, before, during, and after the war.
The book also features a list of resources available for veterans in need of support, and includes suggestions from Benedict and her subjects on how to improve conditions for women in the military. “Women have always met with hostility when they first tried to enter male domains, whether as voters or police officers, firefighters or politicians, and the answer has never been to give up, but to stay and fight for reform until the culture changes and accepts them.”
“It’s outrageously immoral that our female soldiers have to fear many of the male soldiers they serve with, as well as being let down by the very Veterans Affairs system that’s supposed to help them out. Thanks to Helen Benedict, the world is watching!” — Roseanne Barr, Emmy Award-winning actor
“No matter your politics, this book is vital. Helen Benedict’s brilliant and compassionate reporting is neither left nor right — it’s human. For a man reading The Lonely Soldier, you know these women — they are your mother, sister, cousin, daughter. Their stories of injustice in the U.S. Military will tear your guts out. — Dale Maharidge, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning And Their Children After Them
“As a 29-year Army and Army Reserve Colonel, I urge everyone„Ÿespecially women considering joining the US military„Ÿto read this important book. Through unforgettable stories, The Lonely Soldier explains the shocking frequency of sexual assault and what can be done. — Army Reserve Colonel Ann Wright
AMAZON.COM – Buy the Book: The Lonely Soldier: The Private War of Women Serving in Iraq by Helen Benedict
“Once again, Helen Benedict reports what others sweep under the rug, and reveals a pattern where others see random events. The Lonely Soldier will shock you and enrage you and bring you to tears. It’s must reading for everyone who cares about women, justice, fairness, the military, and the United States.” –— Katha Pollitt, award-winning columnist for The Nation
“It is hard to determine what is most disturbing about this book—the devious and immoral tactics used by leaders and recruiters to get women to join the military, the terrible poverty and personal violence women were escaping that lead them to be vulnerable to such manipulation, the raping and harassing of women soldiers by their superiors and comrades once they got to Iraq, or the untreated homelessness, illnesses and madness that have haunted women since they came home. The Lonely Soldier is an important book, a crucial accounting of the shameful war on women who gave their bodies, lives and souls for their country.” — Eve Ensler, playwright, performer, activist and author of The Vagina Monologues
WATCH THE PLAY
Helen Benedict’s play about female solders who have fought in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, THE LONELY SOLDIER MONOLOGUES (www.lonelysoldierplay.com), is being performed from MARCH 5-22 at The Theater for the New City in downtown New York.
The play is entirely in the words of the women soldiers Helen interviewed for her book, The Lonely Soldier: The Private War of Women Serving in Iraq, due out from Beacon Press in March. Please come, one and all! Tickets are $15 for adults, $10 for students. For tickets and information go to www.lonelysoldierplay.com. Professor Helen Benedict has a web site at www.helenbenedict.com
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