“I was in unconventional combat”

Abstract

This chapter introduces six younger veterans active in Veterans For Peace and/or About Face: army veteran Wendy Barranco, air force veteran Phoenix Johnson, air force and army veteran Monique Salhab, army veteran Monisha Ríos, marine corps veteran Stephen Funk, and army veteran Brittany Ramos DeBarros. All six are people of color. Three of them are women, one is an Indigenous Two-Spirit person, one identifies as a genderqueer non-binary person, and three others as queer. Most come from poor or working-class backgrounds characterized by limited family resources, substandard schools, and racial marginalization, and they frequently grew up surrounded by parents and other adults who were veterans. Once in the military, they confronted some of the same experiences that straight men did, including absorbing the trauma of being in combat zones. But these six veterans’ military experiences—including being subjected to systemic racist, homophobic, gender and sexual indignities and violence—shaped the intersectional knowledge they subsequently carry to their peace and justice activism.