Rachel McNeill (center, holding American flag) locks arms with fellow Veterans for Peace members moments before she was arrested in Boston on October 11. (Blast Staff photo/John Stephen Dwyer)

Rachel McNeill is one of 141 people arrested on October 11 when Occupy Boston briefly expand its encampment. This soft-spoken Wisconsin native is a veteran of the Iraq War who joined the Army Reserve shortly after 9/11. She was 17 years old. McNeill spent a year in Iraq, much of it in the so-called “Sunni Triangle,” and drove vehicles along a route that was called “the most dangerous road in the world.”

Now McNeill is a member of Veterans for Peace (Smedley Butler Brigade), Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, and American Women Veterans. McNeill also does work in support of “Operation Recovery: A Campaign to End the Deployment of Traumatized Troops,” a project working to assure service members with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), and Military Sexual Trauma (MST) receive immediate support instead of being deployed back into the same situations in which trauma was inflicted. In 2008, McNeill helped organize the “Winter Soldier” event in Madison, WI. That same year she testified before the Senate Democratic Policy Committee regarding “Contractor Misconduct and the Electrocution Deaths of American Soldiers in Iraq.”

McNeill talked to Blast about the occupation, her arrest, and her reaction the injury received by USMC veteran Scott Olsen during police action against Occupy Oakland earlier this week.

BLAST: Rachel, you and Scott Olsen are both members of Veterans for Peace. How did you feel when you saw those graphic pictures of the injuries he sustained in Oakland on October 25?

RACHEL MCNEILL: I was appalled…It’s a very unfortunate situation and should never have happened. It’s really sad to see something like this…But, it’s not the first time. Another veteran who is active in various veteran’s organizations, including Warrior Writers, was seriously injured at Hofstra University outside of a presidential debate when he was trampled by a police horse. Nick Morgan’s injuries required reconstructive surgery. The most recent event has received considerable coverage, though the incident at Hofstra University went largely unnoticed by the mainstream media.

BLAST: Jean Quan, Mayor of Oakland, just announced they won’t be trying to remove Occupy Oakland again anytime soon. Is this a minor victory for the movement?

RM: I’m not sure this is something to be discussed in terms of victory. Jean Quan approved of clearing the protests. But what that would actually look like in practice…maybe that wasn’t a consideration. Now that it has played out and led to the serious injury of a veteran and the injury of other peaceful protesters, Jean Quan has had a change of heart in light of the unfortunate actions by police in carrying out an action which she approved without meaningful consideration of the consequences.

BLAST: You mentioned “Warrior Writers,” the project that brings together veterans and current service members to express themselves through artistic media. What’s your involvement with that?

RM: I am part of the Steering Committee, which was recently formed to help guide and develop the organization as programming and participation increases. I’m part of the editorial collective and am the layout/type designer for the third anthology…someone I am working with on the next Warrior Writers anthology lives near the hospital [Scott Olsen is in] and she is busy dealing with and providing space for media and other veterans to congregate. One of the members of our editorial collective is fairly involved, so we are being flexible with that as we continue working hard to release the next anthology of veterans writing out.

BLAST: Veterans for Peace is a very visible presence within Occupy Boston. What led you to become a member of an anti-war group.

Veterans For Peace describe the 10/11/2011 Police Raid on #OccupyBoston from Closed Loop-Films on Vimeo.

RM: This is not an “anti-war” group. It is a peace group, which is I why I was drawn to it. Peace is not an abstract goal goal for me. It is action. I am not reacting to war or a particular war, I am just doing what I can to be peace. Peace is healing and reconciliation, liberation, love. It is the way I try to live my life.

“Veterans are the light at the tip of the candle, illuminating the way for the whole nation. If veterans can achieve awareness, transformation, understanding, and peace, they can share with the rest of society the realities of war. And they can teach us how to make peace with ourselves and each other, so we never have to use violence to resolve conflicts again” – Thich Nhat Hahn.

I joined Veterans for Peace in March at the Saint Patty’s Day parade in Southie after learning that they had been denied a permit by the Allied War Veterans Council on the grounds that they did not want the word “peace” associated with the word “veterans.” Most veterans I know want peace…within themselves, within society, within the world. Have you read the edicts of Asoka? King Asoka conquered a neighboring kingdom by war, leading to the death and injury of hundreds of thousands of people. He realized that even those who did not participate in war were impacted by it because of their connection and love for people who suffered in its grasp. He renounced war and for the rest of his reign, he conquered by Dharma, by compassion, by upholding and embodying basic principals of respect. A lot of people realize what war is in practice after experiencing it. Anyone who has not experienced it can only speak about it and theorize in abstract terms.

BLAST: And at what point did you become involved with Occupy Boston?

RM: I was there on September 30 and have spent as much time as I can there ever since…I’ve never had a bird’s eye view because I have been a part of creating it. But whenever I walk into the camp, for the first time since I came home from combat in Ramadi in December 2006, I feel home.

BLAST: When Occupy Boston expanded the protest site on October 10, Veterans for Peace arrived in support. What happened that night and early Tuesday morning?

RM: I was at OB all day and beyond the original nightfall deadline given by police. I left to go to the VFP meeting in Cambridge After another member received a text from someone at OB that the police still planned to come, I looked at twitter on my phone and read a few of the tweets coming through on #OccupyBoston to the group. After a vote on it, we headed to OB to provide mutual support and encouragement. After arriving, we were warmly welcomed and the morale of the group seemed to improve. I suggested to the other veterans that we recite our oath and they asked me to lead it. We walked in a line around the group and I said the oath with the people’s mic. We went to the original encampment and did the same thing. When we returned to the second encampment anticipating police, the people were saying together, “We have a permit. It’s called the Constitution.” Not long after 1 a.m., the police arrived and we took our place between them and the people, continuing to sound off with our oath mixed in with the people’s mic regarding our Constitutional permit.

“The Daily Show’s” resident British man, John Oliver, is engaged to a woman named Kate Norley. The two have been dating Oliver for about two years.

According to Hollywood.com, Oliver revealed the engagement Saturday at Comedy Central’s “Night of Too Many Stars,” a benefit that raises money for autism, but the two have really been engaged since July, when they took a trip to St. Thomas and Oliver commanded she that she even risk her life to eat a blow fish to prove she was committed to him.

The two met at the 2008 Republican National Convention. Oliver told People Magazine, “It’s the most emasculating thing I could possibly do to go out with someone who has actually done something valuable with their life.”

Beneath the action blockbuster (cough “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen”) that graced the screen recently hides this mispackaged gem. Every piece of advertising I have seen on “The Hurt Locker” has pushed it as a war packed shoot’em up but this couldn’t be further from the truth. This film isn’t about explosions or tactics, and I couldn’t be happier about it.

“The Hurt Locker” stars Jeremy Renner and focuses on a small Explosive Ordnance Disposal team (EOD), whose job it is to diffuse bombs in Iraq. Yes, it does have its fair share of violence and explosions, but don’t be expecting a Schwarzenegger-style hero spouting off one-liners in between amazing feats of strength. Expect real people in real bad situations.

Renner plays William James, a staff sergeant who straps on his bomb suit at every opportunity. James is a bit unstable, but a good leader when he’s letting his adrenaline junkie side take the reins. His foil, and second-in-command, is the level headed Sergeant JT Sanborn played by Anthony Mackie. Sanborn certainly starts off as more of the hard-nosed solider type, but goes though some severe changes during the movie. That’s where this differs from other war movies. It doesn’t tell us that war changes people, but rather shows us.

It also shows that some men are just meant for war, and they take it differently. The richness and depth of these two characters is certainly the selling point of this film. You get dragged along their emotional gambit. You understand that Sanborn’s business-like approach is to shield himself and the others from the real horrors going on around them. You understand that James is an addict that has been changed into a walking casualty of war.

And while it is a war movie, it isn’t as preachy as one would expect. There is little to do with the traditional war themes, or even political themes. This film isn’t out to prove a point about the Iraq War, or any war for that matter. With just a little script editing, this film could easily be about the Gulf War or the Vietnam War. The setting is wonderful, and I commend them on actually going to the Jordon to get the true middle-east feel to it, but the story and characters are strong enough to survive on their own.

This movie is shot in a style very similar to a documentary, and it leads us to become more immersed in the world of this EOD team. With it’s over the shoulder shots and most of the focus being James, it almost feels as if this is being told in first person. By the time the bombs go off, the watcher is too far engrossed to be pulled away. The grit of the sand covers the actors, and the heat waves stand in the way of the camera lens. Never before have I seen a movie express heat so well, and it only furthers to pull you in.

There are bomb explosions and gunfire in the movie, but the scariest parts are when there isn’t an explosion on the screen. As James approaches each bomb, there is a feeling that this will be the last. Normally there is an unwritten rule that takes a lot of the tension out of movie: The main character can’t die until the end. This rule isn’t true here. There isn’t a safe moment. At no point did I feel as if any member of the EOD team was invulnerable. It leads to an incredible amount of stomach turning tension. When the realistic explosions finally do hit, that tension is released. You feel good that they succeeded or bad that failed.

This movie will undoubtedly be considered heavily for Oscar treatment, and it should. I tried to find faults to pick at, but those that were there were few and far between. It is a great action movie, yet still has both plot and heart. Director Kathryn Bigelow has made a magnificent must see film, and the best film about the Iraq War yet. Stylish, meaningful and gritty, this type of film that wins award, yet still has enough mainstream appeal to make its way out of the art houses and into the big screens nationwide.