A Soldier of Conscience

From WOI Kevin Benderman, a former Army sergeant, is one of several ex-U.S. military personnel in the movie "Soldiers of Conscience," which premiered at the Atlanta Film Festival in April. The documentary involves soldiers in Iraq who ultimately chose to become conscientious objectors. See the trailer .

Being one of the subjects of a documentary at its world premiere would probably make you famous, right?

"I don't know if I'm famous. Probably more infamous," says Kevin Benderman.

Benderman, a former Army sergeant, is one of several ex-U.S. military personnel in "Soldiers of Conscience." The documentary involves soldiers in Iraq who ultimately chose to become conscientious objectors. In Benderman's case, he had served in Iraq for six months and was ordered to be redeployed with the 3rd Infantry Division from Fort Stewart in January 2005. He began initial paperwork for objector status and was ultimately tried in military court on charges of refusing to return to Iraq. He was dishonorably discharged and served 13 months in military prison.

"I didn't think they would go to the extent to press charges on me," Benderman says, maintaining he had been granted release from duty to finish filling out his application.

"Soldiers" offers countering viewpoints on the subject and cites statistics that maintain up to 75 percent of the American military in combat in World War II did not fire weapons at the enemy.

Benderman says his decision to request objector status wasn't a "grand epiphany" but something he mentally wrestled with over time.

"My seventh great-grandfather fought in the Revolution; both my grandfathers fought in World War I. My father fought in World War II. My uncle was in the Navy in Korea, and I had cousins in Vietnam," Benderman says.

But he also began to question America's involvement in Iraq.

"It makes me angry that soldiers are over there dying," he says. "In my opinion, it's needless. It's gone on entirely too long. If you go back and look at some of the reasons that were stated for the purpose of the war, they turned out to be nonexistent."