'Twenty years in Afghanistan': An exploration of narratives of Operation Herrick told over time

While the UK's combat mission in Afghanistan formally came to an end in October 2014, the withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021 came as a shock to many. Over the last twenty years 150,610 British Service personnel served in Afghanistan with over 600 suffering life changing injuries and 457 personnel losing their lives. This does not include the mental health casualties. 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). 41 oral history interviews were recorded with those who were deployed on Operation HERRICK within weeks of their return. The same people and a matched sample are being interviewed now. 

This study aims to explore how soldiers' narratives have changed over time, and the factors which influence them. 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. This project seeks to adress this gap. 

Oral history interviews are being conducted at different time points to see how their narratives have changed, and learn more about how soldiers narrate experiences of mental health. 

1. How have the narratives of those who served on Operation Herrick changed since 2010?
2. To what extent are changes in their narratives related to: the withdrawal from the conflict; shifts in collective memories: within their unit or societal level about the conflict; their narrated experience of mental health.

40 participants for the initial sample, 40 for the new sample with some overlap with participants.