Former US servicemen Drew Cameron and Jon Turner were both traumatised by their tours in Iraq. Now they're turning military uniforms into paper to deal with what they've been through. 

Drew Cameron is just twenty seven years old but has the experience of someone twice that age. Six years in the US army has seen to that.

His experiences as a field artillery officer in Iraq scarred him. “I saw an entire civilisation turned to rubble,” he says and so his views of war, from wanting to ‘do his bit’ directly after leaving school, turned to anger and frustration following his eight months in Iraq.

And then on November 11th 2007, Veterans Day in the US, he put on his uniform and started to cut it to bits, finally standing naked with his uniform torn to shreds around him. This wasn’t just a cathartic moment – it was the beginning of the Combat Paper Project. With those tattered remains of his uniform, Drew made paper and then used that paper to write about his experiences.

In the intervening two years many other ex-soldiers have been doing the same and for some it’s literally been a life saver. Jon Turner is one such example. He returned from Iraq a broken man and lived on a diet of drink and prescription drugs. He says he’s forever grateful to the Combat Paper Project for turning his life around. He makes paper in all shapes and sizes and paints and writes poetry. A collection of 29 of his war poems has just been published called ‘East the Apple’.

Listen to part of Jon's poem 'Not Enough Peace'.