Emily Yates

Emily Yates served in the 3rd Infantry Division as an Army public affairs specialist from 2002-2008. She deployed twice to Baghdad, where her job was to Tell the Army’s Story of the war, which she quickly realized was not the Real Story of the war. The Real Story was far too “negative” to print, of course. She joined IVAW in 2009, after learning of its existence, because she was ecstatic to find that there were indeed other veterans out there who were opposed to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and to the way the wars were spun to make them digestible to the American public (believe it or not, her views weren’t entirely popular in the military). Finding a community of like-minded veterans was instrumental to her process of healing and transition after getting out of the Army, and her goal is to help that community grow and thrive, so that maybe one day it will be the norm to be a veteran against the war. She is currently a senior at UC Berkeley, majoring in Near Eastern Studies. She is also a musician, and yes, she would be happy to play you her protest song.