All across America and around the world, this is Veterans Radio.
And now, your host for today's program, Dale Throneberry.
And welcome to Veterans Radio.
My name is Dale Throneberry, a CW2 helicopter pilot in Vietnam, 1969.
Want to welcome you to our program today, I'm really excited.
We have just a fascinating author, J.T.
Vladdy, whose book is about her experiences in the Ukraine.
She's, get into more of that in a little bit.
She's a West Point grad photographer, documentary maker,
writer extraordinaire.
The book is titled, Snapshot sent home.
And we're going to be talking about that with J.T. in just a moment.
So if you want to get in on the conversation,
or if you have been to Ukraine, or she also served in Afghanistan and in Iraq.
So the number is 734-822-1600.
734-822-1600.
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Okay, so all of that stuff is out of the way now.
I want to introduce my guest today, my only guest for today, and her name is JT Blattie.
And as I mentioned, she is an incredible photographer and a pretty incredible writer too, but let's see, it says, um, see.
JT Blattie graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 2000, served six years as an active duty army officer.
Deploying with the first trips into Afghanistan following 9-11 and again into Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom.
After completing her service to the military, she pursued freelance photography and writing as a career, working as a regular contributor to the New Orleans advocate, and as a FEMA disaster reservist photographer after completing an intern with National Geographic Traveler.
Ooh, that's pretty cool. Since early 2018, she has been documenting the conflict in Eastern Ukraine while simultaneously creating photographic audio archives of the 2014 volunteer soldiers in the Donbass.
Get that corrected, I'm sure. That was exhibited in Chicago and in New York.
I'm going to get into this because I think this is, this is really important. So I want you to welcome author JT Blattie. Her book is Snapshot sent home.
Welcome to Veterans Radio JT.
Hey, thanks, Dale.
Yeah, well, we're all here. We're all being technologically challenged today, but we're on the air. So that's the important thing.
As I said, welcome to the program. When we were talking just a little bit earlier, you mentioned that you did go to West Point. Could you kind of review that story for us? Because I thought it was interesting.
Yeah, yeah, you had asked me why I went to West Point. And I'm definitely not one of those West Pointers that had had a dream of joining the Long Gray Line their entire life or their families before, or they dreamed of serving in war.
I was just a pretty good tennis player and I was recruited by the tennis coach there and went on the recruitment trip. I definitely had some doubts about it.
Like I imagine this is a time, it's 1996, it's peacetime. And when I accepted, I really thought that it was going to be more for me an opportunity to do something important, of course, but on peacekeeping missions.
Maybe travel the world.
Yeah, sometimes when we get to travel the world of William Arnold, we get to go places we didn't plan on.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. So yeah, I imagined that when I chose my branch to be an engineer's engineer officer, combat heavy engineer, I thought that they would be the best for me because I'm more of a hands-on kind of person.
I wanted to see something creative. I guess construction kind of seemed to be the only route for an officer to not only be shuffling paper or bossing people around, but to be building something, creating something.
Because I always felt more like an artist. And yeah, I thought it was going to actually this unit that I was going to have, you know, they went on peacekeeping missions in Puerto Rico.
That's not really where I ended up going. All right, well, and then unfortunately, you know, 9-11 occurred and everybody seemed to be called active duty.
And you were sent to Afghanistan as part of the first groups that went into Afghanistan, weren't you?
Yeah, yeah. So right after, I remember I was on leave, actually, in New Orleans when 9-11 happened and that very day, I think, or maybe even the next day, they called us all to come back.
And from then on, our unit was on lockdown. You know, it's kind of the hurry up and wait, but we were preparing to deploy. We didn't know exactly when, but we knew something was happening.
And the first of our battalion actually started going in November, right after President Bush declared the war on terror.
And then we trailed behind in my company in January to Kandahar.
Okay. All right. And then from, and you were there building, what, the bases that were there?
Our battalion was doing everything. We were in a lot of different places. We weren't even only in Afghanistan. I mean, I think I'm allowed to disclose this now.
We were also in Uzbekistan. My best friend for a little while, her platoon was in Pakistan.
But in Afghanistan, most of what we were doing was repairing the runways at Kandahar airfield and at Bobram airfield so that we could land C-5s.
Because at the time, the airfield could only withstand smaller flights and the C-17 was the largest that could be landed there.
So we basically were repairing those runways to bring in, I guess, more troops and equipment on C-5s.
And we were also, we had platoons clearing mines with up armors, dozers.
We were building a place to be a more livable, I guess, for everyone. And we were, yes, also building with guard towers, prisons for Taliban prisoners of war.
It goes on.
And how long were you in Afghanistan?
I was there eight months between Afghanistan. I was in two different places and also in Uzbekistan for a short time.
You were writing your book and we're talking with JT Bloudy and her book is Snapshots and Home, which is more about Ukraine.
But it's also about our experiences in Afghanistan and in Iraq.
And you mentioned waking up your first morning in Kandahar, not quite really realizing where you were.
Did the War Museum or the room? Yes. It wasn't not realizing where I was, but it was just, I guess, there was just, for myself, no expectations of what Kandahar would be like, except what we were watching on the news.
I mean, I was 23 years old. I didn't know much about the history of Afghanistan at the time, to be honest with you.
And just, I remember we're there and I just wake up and it was what I call the War Museum.
It just felt like this place where there had been so many wars before me.
And you talk about some of the incoming fire and kind of not knowing where to hide or not to hide or just the effects of all of these different weapons that were being fired into the base there.
Oh, and no, well, when I was in Kandahar before Balgrim, I don't think anything landed within, but we don't know. It was always in the distance surrounding this small little, it was right after the Northern Alliance had the last day and against the Al Qaeda.
Or they had, Taliban had finally, I guess, surrendered and that's why we were sent there right at that time, because it had just happened. We had just secured this airfield. And how extensive this airfield was, I don't know.
It was more about just fear. I'm not going to sit here and tell you like there was bombs dropping all around me. No, it was, for me, it was always in the distance. It felt close. You don't know where it is.
It could be in the mountains. It was more about fear, but yeah, we were digging trenches to cover from those predicted attacks. Yes.
Well, no, I was just, you know, the thing that I was really got from that section of the book was that, you know, you just don't know. And then, you know, I mean, you could hear artillery going off or all kinds of different things.
You know, maybe hitting around you, but you never know. And then, you know, in some cases, it started getting a lot closer. And then you get worried.
Yeah, yeah, exactly. It's really just about the not knowing what's going on around us because our job is not in the countryside fighting, you know, as an infantry.
It's just like sometimes it's harder to, I've realized even in Ukraine's war, it's like the waiting is honestly sometimes could be the hardest part when you're doing nothing, like not nothing, but not actively on a forward mission or, you know, it's easy.
Adrenaline is there, but when you're just waiting, you just don't know, like you're not the person shooting that. You just get a little breathing from your first sergeant or your commander that, hey, they might RPG the hell out of us tonight.
You just don't know anything. Yeah.
Well, you know, after your tour in Afghanistan, how long were you back in the States before you went to Iraq?
Oh, so you asked that because I was wanting, I remember, about towards the end in Afghanistan is watching this television and we actually had this one TV in our talk tent in Bagram and watching the news and starting to see some things about Iraq.
And I remember one of the senior NCOs in my company at the time, he just like, you know, he'd been around previous wars, he knew much more than me about our history and more, you know, Gulf War.
And he's like, just mark my words, we're going there next. Like he already knew it, you know, and it kind of like already put it in my head that we're going there next.
And yeah, so it was, I think that we kind of already knew we were going, maybe a couple months after, within a month after we return, we already kind of, I don't know if it was told to us, I can't honestly remember, but we already knew that some, like it was stirring, we were probably going again.
And so we went in April, so I guess whatever it is between August and April of 2003, what, the seven months, something like that.
You are like so many, put those memories behind you.
So I'm sorry, say that again.
I said you're like so many veterans that I've talked to, you know, it's like they put those memories behind them.
Yeah, there are just so many things that happened in between. I could tell you what I do remember is when our chaplain went AWOL.
That was our Albuster.
Yeah.
And you were stationed down in Georgia, right? Is that where you're based?
Yeah, yeah. Our battalion was at Fort Stewart, Georgia, a 90-second engineer battalion.
Love that.
Yeah, so you're chaplain went AWOL?
That was...
Chaplain went AWOL before Iraq. We didn't have a chaplain in Afghanistan. There was never one assigned to our unit.
We were assigned one shortly after we returned from Afghanistan.
And he went AWOL shortly after he got to our unit when we knew we were going to Iraq.
Oh, okay. Okay. Good thinking, maybe.
We got a replacement though. We did get a replacement. Yeah, chaplain men.
All right, so this is your experience being in a military.
And one of the things that you mentioned in the book was about the camaraderie that everybody has while they're in this service is kind of a whole different family.
And how important it is, of course, while you are with them. And then once you get out, you try to maintain contact.
And sometimes you do and sometimes you don't. But you went back home and decided you wanted to become a photographer.
That's pretty cool.
Yes, I did. Because I was kind of doing before West Point was an option. I was actually really interested in going to Savannah College of Arts.
My parents were like, we're not paying for our school. So, yeah, I went back to the roots of things that I've always loved doing.
But I mean, you've read the book already, you know, I was always taking photographs no matter what.
But yes, I went to actually have coaching tennis and started pursuing freelance photography and writing. Yeah.
And you got involved with a project there in Louisiana about fishermen?
Yeah. So, you know, I think throughout my journey trying to make it in photography and just trying to like, you know, there's a point where
and as Zig Jackson, who was his documentary photography professor at Savannah College of Art and Design, and I met him just off the grid, you know, being in Savannah so long,
he would always tell me, Blatty, stop taking pretty pictures. What is that going to do? And he knew it. He knew that inside, within myself,
like I wanted to do more than to take landscapes and pretty pictures. You know, I wanted to take photographs that serve the purpose.
So that's when everything kind of changed. And I started trying to focus on like photo essays, just photographs that can tell a story and, you know, not just like assignments for the paper.
Yeah. And it led me first to Louisiana for after the oil spill and I'm from New Orleans. And then I just decided to get really involved with documenting and very much a historic
documentarian, I think, and hanging out in the Bayou's with fishermen where my grandpa used to fish, just trying to document the remaining commercial fishermen in South Louisiana.
And they're a different kind of tribe, you know, and doing audio stories as well. And that was like a five year project. And that has a purpose for me, you know, but still not the purpose I was looking for.
No, and then you, so, all right, so I thought that was in right now. I like your style of taking pictures and having audio files that go along with them. I think that's really, really cool.
And I encourage everybody who's listening to go to your website is JTblattablattty.com. And there are many samples of her artwork, photographic artwork, and also her interviews. It's a very complete website, that's for sure.
And so I encourage people to go there and just look at her.
It's, all right, let's go to Ukraine now. How in the world did you ever get to the Ukraine?
So it was actually in New Orleans, kind of like, not going to lie, I've been just feeling disconnected for a while, just like I need something more, something with more purpose.
And, you know, one day I got roped in to going to a, you know, alumni AOG Army Navy game, like the local chapter in New Orleans to go watch it with Ulgraves.
And I think that was 2016. I ran into a classmate. And he was doing some really big things with veterans and building like an entire neighborhood from the ground up for returning veterans of war, intentional communities.
And he was very interested in my photography and what I'm doing. And I was interested in what he was considering going back to Iraq to do something with Yazidi, who, you know, in the wake after we left, ISIS started, you know, you know.
So we were talking about that for a while. And I kept trying to like remind him of like, so we're really going to go to Iraq because this was going to be an opportunity for me to go back there.
And he said one day after we go to Ukraine, I'm like, what? So long story short, you know, I ended up going with a couple veterans and one who was on a German Marshall grant to help Ukraine develop a Ministry of Veterans Affairs.
And he was developing a international summit, and I went with them to take part of the summit. And it was kind of my foot in the door to Ukraine, because I didn't even know there was a war going on until then.
I was kind of ashamed when I started learning what I was learning after that.
I had to agree with you because in reading the book and you know, you were talking with basically volunteers from a war in 2014 that I don't think most of us were even aware of in the Ukraine.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, even before going, I was like, I want to do a project that soldiers, veterans, war, something familiar. And I started researching and I kept learning about these volunteers. I'm like, wait, what?
You know, and when I went, I just discovered this community, the primary bulk of these veterans that needed this service of VA, where they weren't the soldiers like us, like not like how we determine what a veteran is.
You know, we serve under a contract and we're veterans when our service is finished. And these guys, they weren't working under a contract.
They self-deployed in 2014 after the year I might on revolution, which itself was an amazing story to me, like how powerful these men and women were fighting against the corrupt government, fighting for civil rights, doing everything they could.
And then when the revolution did not take the course they expected and Russia started to invade Eastern Ukraine and Crimea, these guys were like, what's going on?
Like, the army's not doing anything. Like, they weren't prepared. And these men and women just took it to themselves to risk their lives to fight for a purpose that was their own purpose.
Weren't paid. They didn't get benefits for it. Their benefit was to save their country, their friends, their home, their protect their civil rights.
And I was just absolutely amazed and inspired by them. And that was in 2018. And that's when I started documenting these specific volunteers who some who are still serving later went to regular army units because, you know, the government started integrating many of them.
Some who went to what we call the peaceful life and some who actually remained in volunteer battalions.
So they're still a volunteer battalion there. I don't believe there are any officially left unless like, I mean, well now, since the invasion, that's a whole nother story. There might be.
But at that, right before the invasion, the last of the volunteer battalions was integrated under the government.
Okay, so they were fighting while you know, Russia was thinking around over there, just, you know, you know, pushing into Crimean and pushing more into Ukraine and so forth. And the government of the Ukraine was collapsing.
Yes, right. And yes, and the president gone, of course, exiled since the revolution. So it was kind of in a place of confusion. Yes.
I don't admire you for even just going there.
So as I mentioned before, can you tell me about some of these people to ran who was the first person, first Ukrainian that you ran into that kind of took you into the, you know, it took you out.
Yeah, well, actually, I met them like before I even got there. I learned because I started researching and I was asking these guys who his name is John Bursler actually who was I was going to be tagging along for this on my own, you know, but to document his event for him and keep but I was asking him all kinds of questions
like, wait, I keep reading about these volunteers. Why are they so we actually connected me to one and we had this scheduled Skype call. Bye bye.
And that's his warning. So I met him and Alina Valkina. Those were the two I met before I arrived the first time. And I was just like amazed like Alina Valkina, she was 18.
And she just hitchhiked and took a train to the front line. And it's like, I'm going to be a medic, a paramedic, and just learning on the fly, you know, to be a paramedic. They didn't have enough.
And those are the kind of people and she was at the Maidan Revolution as well.
I started meeting more and more, not all of them were medics. Many of them were riflemen, tank operator, like they were learning on the fly in 2014 and 15.
It opened up the indoors box, you know, I met so many from there, I just stayed and I stayed and I stayed recording story after story after story, you know.
And I said, if you were going up to the front lines as well, would take pictures.
Yeah, because some of the volunteers, like I came with this narrowed focus that I want to focus on these men and women from 2014, and which many of them took part in the Maidan Revolution.
But some of those folks were still in like on the front line or serving in contracts, you know, for example, one, Valkyrie.
And like, I told this, the guy that I had a fixer in the very beginning, and I told the fixer for like the first year, maybe I said, I want to meet one I heard that people came from like all different countries, I want to meet someone who came from Russia to fight against Russia.
You know, and, and so she was of course still in she had since joined the regular armed forces. And so sometimes these interviews such as with hers would take place on the front line.
And I would photograph them after we did like maybe one to four hour interview.
I would find a way to build my little tactical studio and take a portrait.
I was going to ask you to describe your studio in the front lines.
So first of all, I don't think I ever used a flash in my life before going to you grade. Like I kind of taught myself how to do this but it was just like a single flash, like, and a black blanket.
And do like an umbrella. So I would just go set it up. The one, the one flash and tie that blanket between whatever I could find. But of course, if it's, if you're on the front line and on the positions, you can't do it at night, obviously.
And yeah, just find two places to tie it and shoot away.
Again, I have to encourage our audience, you know, go to their website, go to JTBalladdy.com because all the pictures of the of the team that were over there are there with their stories.
And yeah, you can click if you click into the captions, it'll take you to Vimeo where you can hear that the edited like, you know, these oral history recordings for two to four hours, but I made them into like two to four minutes.
And you can click on each photo in the caption and go directly to Vimeo, their audio story.
Wow. Wow. So, I am, I am taking a back by the, by the courage that you had to even just to go over there and do this. I mean, because you were running around all over Ukraine, which is not an easy place to get, get around in.
Based on what I read in the book.
Where did people go? I mean, how did I mean, that's not a good question.
How did you get into the country easily? And I know that, especially because people were leaving.
Are you talking about like in the beginning or now you're speaking about the most downed in 2020.
Did you just, I mean, did you just kind of fly into, and I know it's not. Yeah, but before the invasion, yes, it was like, you just flew, you know, you could, of course, you actually can't could.
Actually, there was a direct flight from JFK to Kiev before the full scale invasion.
So sometimes I would even take that but yeah, no, you just fly, connect and answer dam or wherever some place in Europe and then connect to Kiev. It was not hard.
And take trains and cabs to where you're going. I used to going to the front line back then it was I just, I could jump on the train. That's usually how I went.
Really? Yeah, you just go to the further furthest most like village in the Dombass that's close to the positions on the front line and you go from there, you know, but after, of course,
when you know, the obviously flights have not been landing in Kiev, like commercial flights since maybe February 23rd or 24th, 23rd.
Now you have to go to one of the bordering countries. Yeah, it takes some, you got to go to Poland first and they either drive all the way in wherever you need to go or you take a bus or you take a train.
It takes a good 20 hours, you know, depends which route you take. But I mean, I don't have any problems getting in and out. I'm actually a resident, you know.
Yeah.
Yeah, I mean, I drive in Ukraine now. I just like I'm comfortable there.
I'm sorry. I'm looking at the map in the back of the book. And no, for our audience, I don't think everybody even knows where Ukraine is. First of all, there's so many, you know,
our attention span is like a net sometimes that we don't pay attention to what is going on. But you know, it's kind of southeast of Poland. It borders on Poland, Belarus, Russia, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Odeva, and then we've got the Black Sea.
And I didn't even know it was there until I read something about Odessa. And I said, oh, I know what that is.
Only from studying film. But these people that you were working with over there, they were so dedicated. I wish that we almost like we were doing this on television so I could show people the pictures that I'm looking at right now.
You know, the one thing that I know is in all these pictures is that the determination in their faces.
Yeah.
And these are these are these are these are men and women of all ages. I mean, they're not all, you know, 18 years old and they're not all older people.
Not at all.
They're like mostly 20s and 30s and, you know, they're on a mission to save their country.
Yeah. And it's hard because, you know, they started something so strong in 2014 and they lost so much during those first two years of the war in 14 and 15 before it went into the peace agreements and they became kind of, you know, it was like World War One kind of warfare locked in trenches, you know, just in defensive positions.
And for years, it just kept lingering on and on with like, what are we going to do? Like presidents trying to end the war? Like, you know, and all Ukrainians have ever wanted is their land back.
And so now it's 10 years. And it's hard for them to give up the purpose that they've bought so hard for, you know, and lost so much for lost so many friends.
I mean, so many of these people lost so many friends in 14 and 15. And now I understand what they feel because even now I have lost so many friends since then and not just people in the portrait, you know, the plenty of people I wanted to interview that I never got the chance to.
We're going to take a break right now. Do our little Medal of Honor segment and when we come back, I want to talk a little bit more about some of these people that you've worked with there, you know, so I want you to think about some that you would like to talk about and highlight.
I think that's what it's put it that way. We're talking with JT Blatty. The book is titled Snapshots Sent Home from Afghanistan, Iraq and Ukraine. It's her own memoir. So stick around. We'll be right back. You're listening to Veterans Radio.
The Medal of Honor is the highest award for valor in combat given a member of the Armed Forces of the United States. There had been over 3400 recipients of the nation's highest award. This is one of them.
In addition, Homer Wise's platoon was pinned down four times. Each time Wise led a break out of the platoon. Details after this.
If you have a VA claim denied by the Board of Veterans Appeals, contact Legal Help for Veterans at 1-800-693-4800.
They're experts in handling cases before the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims. Their number again, 1-800-693-4800.
While his platoon was pinned down by enemy small arms fire from both flanks, he left his position of comparative safety and assisted in carrying one of his men, who had been seriously wounded, and who lay in an exposed position, to a point where he could receive medical attention.
The advance of the platoon was resumed, but it was again stopped by enemy frontal fire. A German officer and two enlisted men armed with automatic weapons threatened the right flank.
Fearlessly exposing himself, Wise moved to a position from which he killed all three with his submachine gun. Returning to his squad, he obtained an M1 rifle and several anti-tank grenades, then took up a position from which he delivered accurate fire on the enemy, holding up the advance.
As the battalion moved forward, it was again stopped by enemy frontal and flanking fire. Wise procured an automatic rifle and advancing ahead of his men, neutralized an enemy machine gun with his fire.
When the flanking fire became more intense, he ran to a nearby tank and, exposing himself on the turret, restored a jammed machine gun to operating efficiency and used it so effectively that the enemy fire from an adjacent ridge was materially reduced, thus preventing the battalion to occupy its objective.
The Medal of Honor series is a production of Veterans Radio.
A message from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
We're back here on Veterans Radio and we were talking with J.T. Blatty, whose book is titled Snapshot Sent Home. It's about her adventures in the military and out of the military and eventually ending up in the Ukraine and kind of almost as a photojournalist, writer and everything else telling the story of what actually was going on or is still going on in the Ukraine.
I'm looking at a, she has little segments throughout the book and that are taken from the interview that she did with many of the fighters and I know I'll butcher this name but this is a, I think it's Yavinia Yanchenko, pretty close.
Anyway, the quote here that I thought was so important, she's saying, I want my country to live in peace. I want the kids going to school or daycare without worrying about missiles hitting the school or daycare.
99% of the children, I think this is your quote, 99% of the children always ask one question, when will this be finished and we say the truth that we can't answer because we don't know.
Oh, I guess we lost JT, so he's going to call her back. So I'm going to read from the book here.
This is interesting. And one of the stories she's talking about a young man named Marion and Marion was the first of the faces that she had photographed who unfortunately died on the front line and it happened only months after she met him in 2018 and not far from the fresh ditch in the ground where another one had contemplated how just a slight
calibration from drone footage would have finished them all off on any given day.
So JT is back on the line. Hello there.
Sorry about that.
That's okay. It's just technology. So I read a quick statement here from, I messed it up before, I'm going to mess it up again.
Yes, Yavinia Yanchenko.
Yes, is that a woman, right?
Yes, yes.
Wonderful woman.
Yeah.
And it just talks about that, you know, she just wanted everything to stop and, you know, not worry about, you know, missiles hitting everything.
Right.
Getting their school, their daycare and a lot of the part that I mean, I should have put it in there too, made it a little bit longer, but she also speaks about, and you can hear it in her audio, sorry, but she speaks about just like how she even considers leaving Ukraine because, you know,
she wants her children to live in peace and not worry about this and how hard it is for her to even consider leaving when everything they've fought for from their hearts in the beginning in 2014 and on, you know, just as washed up in vain,
like, what were we fighting for, you know, would we, like, how to not fight, how to stop now, like, what do you do?
And that's the place that many, many of them before the full scale invasion felt, you know.
You mentioned, you talk about a lot of different people that are, you know, go have that dilemma, you know, will stay in or leaving, you know, you know, Russians coming in and now, you know, and they're fighting Russian invaders.
And I'm at a loss for words here because, you know, these people are dedicated to the idea of making, you know, having Ukraine be free again.
Yeah, civil rights, just, you know, and a lot of them, the Maidan, it wasn't just about like a lot of people think it's just about, you know, that the former president Yanukovych at the last moment backed away from the joining the EU inside of with Russia.
It was seated long before that it was so much of it was seated in civil rights violation and corruption and people that have been going on for years already.
People were tired of it, you know, and even during the Maidan, they put them into the law that they end freedom of speech because they were, you know, it started as a peaceful process.
And then they tried to stop their voices and then they started using live ammunition and killing, killing people. You know, so I went a little off there, but.
Oh, no, no, no, no, no, that's fine.
It's very hard to give up that fight, you know, so many of these people were at Maidan too, you know, and that was three months.
That was like the first war and then going, you know, self deploying in 14 and 15. And then, you know, everything became caught up in politics after that.
But still so hard for them to leave, you know, like how do you transition when your friends are still on the front line, you know, you can go to key for like leave, but, you know, you just call your, you know, call your friend on the front line, go visit for days and go bring some supplies.
Like, they're telling you what's going on, like how do you just not go back, you know.
No, I understand that because, you know, you know, you've dedicated your life to trying to free your country and it's, you know, it's not working quite the way you had hoped and, you know, many of these people that you highlighted, you know, had the option of leaving, but they don't.
Yeah, because they knew there was going to be also so many another escalation. It's like, what if it, yeah, like what if Russia invades again, you know, what if they come back? A lot of people have always felt that way.
But it's, and you know, here's another thing that's what I think it's hard for American veterans to understand because we're sent to war overseas, you know, we're sent to other people's countries.
No, drop down. Don't have a lot of like, some people maybe feel a huge purpose when they go to war for our army, maybe so, but, you know, once we leave, it's like, okay, I'm back now.
But it's for these guys, this is their country. It's like a permanent 9-11. Okay.
And it's a feeling time. I feel like we really remember what it feels like to this fear of being attacked or invaded, you know, and for those of us that were there during that time, like it was very like the fear surrounding that the feelings like it wasn't just like it just happened and it was gone.
Like I think many of us are like, what's next? Like this is World War Three.
Right.
And we've kind of like moved away from that like too much time and distance like we've forgotten but here in their country, they are, it's like every day, you know, they are invaded.
They're being invaded on their own border. They lost their part of their country in 2014-15. It was been occupied since and now more is being occupied and destroyed.
And it's like, how do you let go of that? Like we can move away from easily. They cannot.
They have a real purpose like passion. Like this is their civil rights, their freedom.
I think that's a really important thing that we need to remember and remind everybody of that these people are fighting for their own country.
It's not like, you know, unfortunately, Afghanistan and Iraq, you know, we got, you know, politicians got tired of it.
And, you know, there was never really a, it was never really an end plan, which sort of since World War Two, we've been going through that over and over again.
And, you know, once it's at that point, you know, we come home and we try to get on with our regular lives. And again, I'm talking with JT Plattie.
The book is titled Snapshot St. Homonym, looking at our website, which is JTPlattie.com.
And these, they just look like everyday ordinary people, except for the looks in their eyes, that this is something really important.
And I, while we got disconnected, I started to read a little bit about Marion.
Tell our audience a little bit about him. He was a young boy, only 18 years old.
Yeah, he was like, and you know, that was my very first time I ever went to the front line, which was in April of 2018, and visiting the positions with the right sector with Da Vinci, who, yeah, and he just happened to be there.
And I just mapped a shot of him. And I think it's when I came home, it was maybe in, in, in that was in April.
It was only in May that I saw some posts on Facebook because there's this thing that you do there, you know, whenever somebody's lost, you see this candle lit, somebody's gone.
And I, I don't know how it came up, but I talked to the other soldier I was there to interview.
And I'm like, to me, that was like a moment, like that was, I think the first time I had photographed someone and then knowing that they're gone, like, three weeks later.
And I think that that is what made me want to go back and not in space, you know, that's when I went back again that fall and I pretty much never came back to the United States, just to like back on some things and do some medical appointment.
But that was it because that just made it a little more real for me more than anything in my deployment. I guess, you know, I don't think I ever lost.
I didn't lose anyone in my unit ever.
But yeah, I wanted to tell the world the story about this war.
Well, I think you're doing a pretty good job. And if we can get a couple of 100,000 people to read the book, I think they'll get a better understanding of what is really going on there. I mean, not only with your pictures and your graphic descriptions,
which were really, I don't know, it really took me, took me back 50, 60 years ago of some of the things that that, you know, that I saw that, you know, many people of my generation of veterans saw and and the way that you were describing them,
trying to, you know, these artillery shells would be coming in and, you know, the in the inclusion now of drones and you never know where anything is going to come from.
Yeah, yeah.
And trying to put people back together again just to bury them.
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah, exactly. And I think that's.
Yeah, I do hope that the book resonates with not just the veterans from my wars, but veterans from all wars, of course.
I think, I think it will. I think the, I mean, war is war.
And that, you know, it's just a matter of, you know, who's fighting it where and when. And I think that we are, you know, so removed from Ukraine.
As I mentioned, because most of us, you know, don't really know what where it is, what it is, what it's about. And we've got our politicians that are playing games with.
Yeah, exactly. And that's the hardest part. Yeah.
You know, I mean, these people are true freedom fighters. I mean, you would think.
With quote America's background and the whole idea of concordant, you know, these revolutionary people that we would be throwing money in there. I can understand them. The reluctance to get.
And we were in the beginning for sure. You know, and I'm not going to like get into too many politics, but, you know, I think the problem was the politics of how it was received and transmitted because when you go through politicians.
On both sides, it's not always that great, but the people on the ground are the ones who are paying the price. And it's these men and women that are paying the price for a freedom that we take for granted right now.
I mean, like our revolutionary war patriot.
And it's saying, you know, it's not, it already is a World War three.
I mean, it's like the whole world is playing it politically, but on Ukraine's soil and Ukraine's bodies that are.
These freedom fighters paying the price and yeah, we all need to remember and appreciate what we have. And yeah, anyway, I don't know.
I don't like politics because I mean, I can't tell you I speak for the people.
I know I didn't I didn't mean to get, you know, go off.
You didn't you're a rant and tangent myself, but it's everything in the book.
Snapshot sent home is just so powerful. And I think it's so meaningful.
And also, you know, we talk about family, you talk about family quite a bit in the book and not not your personal biological family.
You're talking about your veterans family. You're talking about family and tribe. Yeah, tribe of veterans. Yeah.
Yeah, the tribe was it being West had a book called the strongest tribe.
And this is, you know, this is where we were and where you were and where these men and women are right now. They are a tribe and they're trying to protect themselves, protect their families.
Drive out their invaders. And they need every we need to get to get the word out and show people and this is what I think you do so excellently.
I'm not sure that a word. Sure.
With your photographs on the website and and your
verbiage in your book. As I mentioned,
obviously, I'm a big fan.
But I think that it's, I encourage people to find out more about it. You know, don't don't let's not let's listen to our politics.
Politicians out there do some research on your own and see what you can find out because, you know, there are a lot of people from Eastern Europe that live in the United States now.
And I'm sure that we could.
Maybe we should put a little pressure on there ourselves.
Anyway, yeah, but yeah, I would like to say that few mainstream headlines. Don't read it. If you want to really understand what's happening in Ukraine and it's not for any political endeavor.
It's just from the ground and from the people. You know, it's not trying to hide anything. It's not trying to fluff anything. It's just what it is.
I think you'll understand and resonate like with.
These people and so many people did in the very beginning, but then people started getting Ukraine exhaust. You know, it's just.
Trying to follow wars does that to, you know, to.
And it's not that, you know, that we're all just because we're veterans, we're not out there to get everybody.
But we want to we want to help these people defend their own homeland.
Yes.
And then I wish that I would, you know, 50 years younger.
Maybe this book will inspire some people to find a way to do it without politicians.
Yeah, well, if you do, because I think that's the point and don't let the media exhaust you just read something like, like this book, you know.
Yes, I agree.
I've only got a minute to go. So, JT Blatty, the book is Snapshot sent home.
Thank you very much for being on Veterans Radio. I encourage people to get this book.
You're going to be enlightened. I'm telling you, go to our website, JT Blatty.com and look at the pictures of these men and women and you can't help but.
No, just fall in love with them almost there. They're dedicated and devoted. So thank you very much.
Go to the volunteers link if you want to look at these characters. We're speaking of. Yes, volunteer.
Thank you, Dale, so much for having me actually for so much time. I'm so happy to speak to you and hopefully the veteran community.
Yep, we'll get the word out. Let me know if any projects that you've got come up. I'd love to have you on again.
We have to go after seconds. Thank you very much. So I'm telling you this week, this is Dale Thromary for Veterans Radio and you are dismissed.
Oh God bless America. Land that I love. Stand beside her and guide her through the night with the light from above.
From the mountains to the prairies to the oceans white with foam. God bless America. My home sweet home.
God bless America. Land that I love. Stand beside her and guide her through the night with the light from above.
From the mountains to the prairies to the oceans white with foam. God bless America. My home sweet home.
God bless America. My home sweet home.
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