In October, for the first time since the Covid lockdown in March 2019, we were back doing in-person We Are Not Your Soldiers school visits.

Our October visits began in the New York metropolitan area. John Burns, accompanied by his service dog Zero, spoke to students at four varied schools. Some classes viewed either a clip or all of Unmanned. Some older students watched Collateral Murder or a shorter version.

At a middle school Dean Feinman joined John at the session and also responded to some of the many questions asked and comments made by very well-spoken students.

John then spoke at three colleges – two public colleges in different boroughs and Adelphi University on Long Island – presenting to a total of 6 classes.

Here are a few student comments received on evaluation forms:

• I liked that the presentation was informative and interactive.
• I liked how we got a real life experience story from the speaker and the statistics that were shown that I didn’t know about.
• I enjoyed that the presenter truly spoke from the heart and gave his true opinions on the different topics. He was extremely knowledgeable and was able to answer the questions without hesitation.
• I liked that he gave us the real experience and didn’t leave out the bad stuff. Nothing was sugar-coated.

Luda Bryzzheva, professor at Adelphi whose class we visited, thanked John for giving the class “the gift of perspective and critical thinking” noting that he moved them in ways she “had not seen before.”

We finished the month with a visit to a private NYC university where Joe Urgo spoke with the students. The class reading prior to the visit were chapters on the media and its war coverage. In addition to the short version of Collateral Murder, students also viewed testimony at the Vietnam Winter Soldier hearings.