Kristopher White

In July 2002 I joined the United States Marine Corps and was shipped off to MCRD San Diego where I began and ended my recruit training with Kilo Company, graduating recruit training October 18, 2002. Shortly thereafter I attended the Infantry Training Battalion at Camp Pendleton where I would receive orders to 1st Battalion 7th Marines at 29 Palms. In February 2013 I was on a flight to Kuwait, where I stayed for about a month and a half before hearing that we would be crossing the LOD in March. I was a brand new Marine who was gung ho and ready to go kill the "bad guys." During this deployment we crossed the LOD and quickly made our way to Baghdad. We would only remain in Baghdad for a short amount of time before receiving orders to move south to Najaf, Iraq. This deployment would last 8 months. In 2005 I deployed with 2nd Battalion 7th Marines to Fallujah, Iraq. We remained in Fallujah for about 4 months or so before relieving a Marine Reconnaissance unit in Amariyah/Ferris Town, Iraq. This deployment would last 7 months. I joined Iraq Veterans Against the War after it took me quite a few years, and a government college course, to realize that 1. the war in Iraq was illegal (according to the U.S. Constitution, and 2. we were being used as political pawns in a strategic chess game. I soon realized that there were thousands of people who were dedicating their lives to expose this grotesque reality. That we took an oath to support and defend a document. Not a politician, not a President, but a document. I realized that I needed to stand up and make my voice heard in hopes that this evil will not happen again.