12 July, 2007 - Published 11:15 GMT
To the Fallen: Soldiers sing their own tributes
Outlook has featured an item about a record label that publishes songs by American military personnel who have served in Iraq.
"To The Fallen" was co-founded by Sidney De Mello and Sean Gilfillan, a US Army Captain, who served in Iraq for fifteen months after the US-led invasion.
"You often hear from politicians and four-star generals," Gilfillan told Outlook's Fred Dove, "But you never really hear from people on the ground unless you have a loved one on the ground or you're privileged to read the blogs on the internet.
"We just felt that this was a great vehicle for the American people and the people around the world to hear directly from the people who are on the ground.
"The other point is to allow an outlet for these soldiers that are on the ground to release their feelings and all their emotions into music - to be a vehicle for them to get out to the public as well.
"It helps them tell loved ones what they've been through without actually having to sit down and tell them 100 times."
Among the soldiers who've recorded tracks is US Marine Sergeant Sugar Ray Henry, better-known as 'sug'.
He and a group of friends - collectively known as "Dirty Boi Vets" - composed a song called "Combat Zone" while they were stationed in Hawaii just after they returned from two years duty in Iraq.
"I was on a mobile patrol and was on my way back to base when we got ambushed so basically I just put in detail about what happened, how we got ambushed, and what I went through," he said.
"I was sitting in the passenger seat of a Humvee and I was about to reach for a cigarette when we got ambushed.
"The vehicle in front of me got flipped over and the driver got shot in the head and he was dead.
"It (the song) talks about how I almost cried when I see him and I went and grabbed him."
Henry says that he thinks that the song has helped him cope with the trauma.
"It got it out my system," he said "And instead of telling different people what happened, they could just listen to the song."
Gilfillan, who returned from Iraq with post-traumatic stress disorder, said that such feelings were common among both the military who've recorded songs and those that have listened to them.
"We have comments on our Myspace every single day which says 'thanks for saying something that I couldn't have said to my wife.'
Gilfillan explained that To the Fallen was not political and was neither pro or anti-war, and that they'd had "nothing but support" from the authorities.
"It's not about politics," he said, "It's about music.
"The soldiers we feel have earned the right to say whatever they want, whenever they want, however they want. We support that right to say whatever they want."
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