"A Matter of Conscience"

Monday, October 1, 2007"Letters from Fort Lewis Brig" Released

"Letters from Fort Lewis Brig," by Kevin Benderman with Monica Benderman, was released on October 1 by Lyons Press, an imprint of Globe Pequot Press. Forty-year-old Sergeant Kevin Benderman was court-martialed by the U.S. Army for desertion. Haunted by his year of combat duty in Iraq, remembering his encounters with maimed children, dead civilians being ravaged by dogs, and young soldiers turned into soulless killing machines, the nine-year veteran declared himself a conscientious objector and declined to return to Iraq for a second tour. When his unit was deployed again to Iraq, he stayed home in Georgia.

Imprisoned for 13 months after being convicted of "missing movement" in 2005, Benderman is still appealing, and requesting an honorable discharge."I'm being singled out and punished for speaking the truth about the army," he said. He and his wife Monica continued to speak publicly in spite of his imprisonment. Their ongoing story is told in between fragments of the battles Kevin fought in Iraq, his growing awareness that the war in Iraq is wrong and their struggle to see that justice is served. The book is available from the publisher, Lyons Press, and from retailers such as Amazon.com

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