For several years I frequently visited Camp Lejeune, the large Marine base on the North Carolina coast, about three hours east of where I lived.
I went because they had a brig — a jail — and several of the troops I had worked with as resisters to war served time in it. I went to visit as often as I could.
Above is a photo of the gate there from which prisoners are released; the man just about to emerge is Clifford Cornell, a GI resister who was released in January, 2010.
Early on in these visits I noticed homemade banners hanging on a fence along the public highway to the base. They were made by families to welcome Marines back from combat deployment in Iraq.
Many of the banners were very simple: “Welcome home Corporal X, we missed you.”
But many were more than that: funny, touching, naughty, and catch-in-the-throat.
They were also ephemeral: hanging on the fence, intimate yet open to the world, torn by wind and weather, til they fell off or someone took them down to put up new ones.
Soon enough, I started taking pictures of the most striking ones, to document this remarkable form of military “folk art.” That was in 2004.
Five years later, the wars were still going on, and the combat deployments for Marines had piled up. And as a result, I had dozens of these photographs.
I believe they give a very special glimpse into the impact of these wars on the American families who were bearing their brunt. And these expressions, at once both intimate and public, deserve a wider audience. I haven’t seen them documented anywhere else.
Eventually the brass clamped down, and the Lejeune brig was closed. I collected almost a hundred photos in a full-color book: Priceless: Welcome Home Banners For US Troops Returning From War (The “Priceless” meme was from a very popular series of credit card commercials; it recurred often in the banners.)
The book is available at the print-on-demand site, blurb.com. The link will take you to a display of the entire book, which can be browsed at no charge.
BTW there’s no “political” commentary in the book. I let the pictures do the communicating, and leave readers to their own reactions. For me, the banners are full of silent, poignant and thought-provoking eloquence. And this is a fitting weekend to view them and reflect.
Thank you for your years of service, Chuck!