not titled [Handing out batteries] Accession Number: AWM2020.205.40.138

Description

Robert Cooper served in Afghanistan 2010-2011. He was deployed as an ASLAV gunner with 2 Cavalry Regiment as part of MTF-2 (Mentoring Task Force – Rotation 2), based in Uruzgan Province.

While on deployment, Cooper was able to sketch and write in his journal, and he also recorded footage of troop movements and the local Afghan people. Cooper was discharged in early 2011. Once home, he produced a sequenced set of 346 works on paper, referring back to the notes and footage he made in Afghanistan so that he could tell the story of his deployment with absolute accuracy. Cooper wanted to show people exactly what he had witnessed and experienced at war.

Text from book:

11 DEC 2010

THE FORT DOWN AT THE ENTRANCEOF THE VALLEY, WHICH WAS
MANNED BY THE ANP
COMBAT TEAM DELTA AND THE
AMERICAN STRYKERS HAD A SHORT
STOP OVER AT THE FORT
ONE ANP MEMBER CAME UP TO ME
AND POINTED TO HIS HAND HELD
TWO WAY RADIO AND SHOOK HIS
HEAD AND THEN POINTED TO HIS
EAR AND AGAIN SHOOK HIS HEAD
OK........ OK.......... I HAVE HIM 4 AAA
BATTERIES WHICH SOLVED HIM
PROBLEMO... THEN THE
WHOLE FORT WANTED BATTERIES
I GAVE THEM A BOX AND THEN
HID IN OUR GUN CAR AWAY FROM
THIS COUNTRIES POLICEFORCE FOR
SARGE WOULD HAVE HIT THE ROOF
IF HE FOUND OUT I WAS HANDING
OUT OUR SUPPLY OF BATTERIES
TO THE ENTIRE AFGHAN
POLICE FORCE

Details

Conflicts

• Afghanistan, 2001-2021
• Iraq, 2003-2013