James Burmeister was serving in Baghdad when his humvee was caught in an IED explosion and he was hit in the face with shrapnel. Suffering from the physical and emotional wounds resulting from his injury and his experiences working with "bait and kill" teams in Iraq, James went to Canada and was AWOL until earlier this year.

While in Canada James suffered from seizures, numbness, nosebleeds and was diagnosed with PTSD. He also made a moral decision to bring an end to the 'Bait and Kill' tactics the Army was using to lure and kill innocent Iraqi citizens. James spoke out to Courage to Resist and other news agencies to help end the tactics.

In February the US government deemed 'Bait and Kill' as illegal and immoral. His goal of ending the immoral tactics accomplished, James prepared to turn himself in at Ft. Knox. After turning himself in, James was faced with a severe sentence involving loss of rank; loss of pay; a Bad Conduct Discharge (the worst kind of discharge, which prevents James from accessing any of his veteran benefits including all medical benefits); and a 9-month prison sentence which he began serving on July 17, 2008 in a military prison at Fort Knox.

 Learn More about War Resisters

Read more about James on Courage to Resist's website

Learn more about war resisters at Courage to Resist

Contacting James

-James can receive mail, as many letters as we want. He does not have to pre-approve senders.

-Letters must not have any stickers on them or they will be returned.

-Letters can contain photos as long as they are decent photos with no graphic content.

You can write to James in prison at: