With little recognition, thousands of Pacific islanders have been serving in Iraq and Afghanistan as soldiers and contractors since 2001. It is dangerous work – dozens have been killed, hundreds wounded and some are returning home with mental health issues.
Micronesians reputedly have both the highest military participation rate and the highest casualty rate per capita of any ethnic group in the US. Guam's casualty rate, for instance, is 450% higher than the national average.
Why are they so vulnerable? Why are they serving there? How are these wars affecting faraway Pacific island communities? These are some of the questions that prompted Ben Bohane to spend a month in Afghanistan in late 2013 as many Pacific island soldiers were in their final months of deployment. The environment they operate in couldn't be more different physically, or culturally, from their home.
Embedded mainly with Guam Battalion operating around Kabul and Kandahar, he also spent time with Pacific island troops serving with Australian, British, New Zealand and French forces in Kandahar, Uruzgan and Helmand provinces. Where US forces have mostly Micronesian and some Polynesian troops (from Hawaii and American Samoa), he also found Tahitians with the French, Papua New Guineans and Solomon Islanders with the Australians, Fijians and Tongans with the British and Maoris with the New Zealanders.
This feature encompasses the whole Pacific: Melanesians, Polynesians, Micronesians and Aboriginal Australians in Afghanistan, although much of the focus is on the Micronesians in Guam Battalion. All brought a sense of their island identity with them and Ben Bohane found a protective aura in their strong sense of community and comraderie.