After over 20 years of service to our nation, fulfilling missions on 3 combat tours to Iraq and Afghanistan and over 19 non-combatant tours, Air Force Veteran Kevin Wallace’s military career was dedicated to shots…not just from behind a rifle, but behind a camera as a combat photojournalist. His career path led him to train and deploy with some of our most elite warfighters, the Marine Corps MARSOC, Army Rangers, and Green Berets, to capture and tell their stories in battle. In each mission he fulfilled, Wallace witnessed and captured death, destruction, survival, and the lives of innocent people living in kinetic war zones. It was then that photography began to take on a new meaning – therapy to help him with his PTSD and invisible wounds.
“While I truly believe in Afghanistan we were ridding the world of monsters, some of us were slowly becoming monsters ourselves; and … sometimes unwillingly and unknowingly brought monsters back to our own living rooms…I finally saw the true extent of my PTSD through the verbal and emotional abuse I was inflicting at home,” shares Kevin.
To support Wallace in his post-traumatic growth and his mission of capturing and telling the story of his fellow veterans who share like experiences in combat and life after, HOPE granted him a camera and underwater camera equipment through our Warrior’s Wish program.
Since then, Kevin has furthered his artistic education and continues to share his passion for photography and serving veterans through his art.