'Poster Girl' Chronicles Struggles of Iraq War Veteran

For Robynn Murray, serving her country in the armed forces involved two battles: one overseas as a machine gunner in Iraq and the other as a veteran struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder once back in America.

A crowd of more than 100 people packed into the Puffin Cultural Forum Wednesday night to hear from the National Merit Scholar and cheerleader turned Army sergeant. The crowd learned that Murray joined the Army Reserve in 2003 and was deployed to Iraq in 2004 at age 19 ready to “prove herself” to her macho male counterparts.

The crowd also learned about the crippling guilt and anxiety that consumed Murray as she fought the Veterans’ Administration for proper care and monetary compensation upon her return home from war a year later.

The audience included many veterans, as well as members of 11 peace-activist organizations that sponsored the night’s event.

Besides hearing Murray speak in person, the crowd got to watch a documentary about her titled Poster Girl.

The 38-minute film was nominated for Best Documentary (Short Subjects) at the 2011 Academy Awards. First-time filmmaker Sara Nesson directed the movie and answered questions from the audience after the film was screened.

The title of the documentary comes from Murray being a “poster girl” for women in combat after she and two other female soldiers were pictured on the cover of Army Magazine. The movie follows Murray for two years as she tries to redefine her life through art, poetry and activism, and it draws attention to the mental toll that war has on the men and women who serve their country.

A DIFFERENT BATTLE AT HOME

The documentary focused a lot on Murray’s navigation of the VA process in which she had to prove her physical injuries and PTSD were war-related so she could receive medical and disability benefits.

Shuffling through the maze of paperwork, phone calls and doctor visits took its toll on the young veteran, who was filmed punching walls and kicking her car out of frustration.

Throughout the film, photos of a young Murray – full of smiles and minus her present tattoos and piercings – graced the screen. And, equally as striking, appeared gritty images and videos from Iraq that showed Murray covered from top to bottom in gear, with a large, black gun gripped tightly in her hands.  

“I was a 19-year-old girl on top of a Humvee in Baghdad. Responsible for not only my life, but the lives of the people on my truck and the people around me who were trusting me not to kill them if they came anywhere close to me,” said a visibly upset Murray, on camera, during the opening scenes of the film.

She detailed how she was “a soft target” because she was the only one exposed at the top of the vehicle, manning the machine gun. During one example she gave in the film, when a sniper was shooting at her, she refused to open fire because a target was never identified – even though a major she was escorting in the truck screamed at her to do so.

“If I was to open up with this thing, I could have killed innocent civilians for no reason, and because this man was scared, he wanted me to open up with my weapon and I wouldn’t do it. I refused,” she said.

Murray began to sort through her emotions thanks to artistic expression, such as Combat Paper Project, which allows service men and women to cut up their uniforms and turn them into paper to use in artwork.

Murray also channeled her feelings into poetry, which she shares through Warrior Writers.

She shares her views on war as a member of Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW).

At the conclusion of the movie, the crowd found out that after three years, Murray was declared 80 percent disabled and eligible to receive $1,228 a month.

During the question and answer segment of the event, Murray shared that she’s doing better these days and that she lives an hour south of Rochester, N.Y., with her boyfriend.

Iraq War veteran Jeff Key, who serves on the Board of Directors for the IVAW, joined Murray and Nesson on stage to field questions from the audience. Key wrote a play based on his journals as a Marine in Iraq. The play, called The Eyes of Babylon: One Marine’s Journey, currently is playing Off-Broadway.

Key said the best thing a person can do to help a veteran is to listen.

“The most you can do for a veteran is listen, and let them be in charge of what they say," he said. "There are relatively no questions that you need to ask. I just think that Sara (Nesson) is an exemplary example of this. I can’t tell you the number of places where we’ve been on the front lines of fighting this battle for peace. And she’s there, listening with her camera. And when she’s listening, now millions of people are listening.”

Poster Girl will air in the fall on HBO, after which the movie then should be made available on DVD. In the meantime, Murray and Nesson plan to screen the film around the country. 

"When I do this, I don't pretend to be smart enough to know how to make anyone else's decision for them better than they would," Murray said. "But what I do want to achieve is being able to tell young people the truth and to show them the things that they don't get to talk with the recruiter about."

Nesson said her film was about helping young people make a more informed decision before joining the military, "so that they know what to expect when they go over there and what's going to happen to them emotionally and psychologically when they come back."

RESOURCES FOR VETERANS TO GET HELP:

• U.S. Dept. of Veterans Affairs: Veterans and Military resource link

• Fairleigh Dickinson University Veterans Program, : Center for Psychological Services

• Poster Girl: Resources for Veterans