Beginning in October 2021, Chloe Storer's AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Partnership ''After Afghanistan': narratives of Operation Herrick told over time by those who served is a partnership with Kings College London.
Between 2010 and 2014, the War Story project at Imperial War Museums (IWM) worked with the UK Ministry of Defence and others to document the UK's involvement in the conflict in Afghanistan (Operation HERRICK). Thirty-six oral history interviews were recorded with those who were deployed on Operation HERRICK within weeks of their return. In 2023, Chloe began re-interviewing some of those interviewed, as well as new veterans and serving personnel who served on similar HERRICKs. As such, there is a twelve- or thirteen-year gap between the two interviews which presents a unique and distinctive opportunity to address some major gaps in the existing literature.
How soldiers' narratives have changed over time, and the factors which influence them need exploration. The Operation in Afghanistan was a long conflict originating from 9/11 and ending in a 'defeat'. Research to date has not explored service personnel's' mental health experiences using oral history or examined how they narrate their experiences of Afghanistan given the 2021 withdrawal. As such, this project has two major research questions:
- How have the narratives of those who served on Operation Herrick changed since deployment?
- To what extent are changes in their narratives related to:
- Media, individual identity and the interviewer?
- Mental health and wellbeing?
- The withdrawal from the conflict?
Chloe has really enjoyed working on the project, and is grateful to all those who gave their time for an interview.