We Are Not Your Soldiers started the winter and closed out 2025 with visits to two community colleges and one private middle school, all in various boroughs of New York City.
Joe Urgo spoke to three college classes and included the screening of clips from the Winter Soldier hearings on Vietnam, of which he was one of the organizers.
Will Griffin had a long session with a class at another college where he shared not only his experiences being stationed in both Iraq and Afghanistan but a highly informative slide show he has developed. These quotes are representative comments we received on our evaluation form following the presentation.
- I appreciated how Will shared a lot of his personal experience in the military. Not only that. He was very honest about everything.
- I loved every bit. Very informative.
- I always had a very small interest in joining the armed forces but now that has shifted. I feel that now I need to really look at the grand picture before considering again.
- I was not aware of most of everything Will spoke about. Everything was surprising and it did change the way I view the military. I dislike it even more.
John Burns finished the December visits by speaking with four classes of well-prepared eighth graders. Between the questions they had drawn up prior to the presentation after taking and discussing our preparatory Quiz and then the other questions they developed after watching a clip from “Unmanned” and hearing John’s talk, we ran out of time to speak to all that was on their minds.

