Victor Agosto Victor Manuel Agosto ( born May 13 , 1985 ) is an American anti - war activist and a former United States Army private . He is noted for his direct and public resistance to the War in Afghanistan as an active duty soldier . Background . Agosto was born in Miami , Florida , the son of a Honduran mother and a Puerto Rican father . He graduated from the School for Advanced Studies in 2003 . Agosto then attended Miami - Dade College for two years before enlisting in the Army . He entered military service in August 2005 . Agosto deployed to Iraq from September 2006 to October 2007 , working as a communications specialist . It was during this deployment , through a process of " self - education , " that Agosto came to oppose the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan . Agosto says he " never felt any danger " during his deployment and " never left the FOB . " In the last months of the deployment , Agosto began to have strong feelings of guilt over his involvement in an " imperialist occupation . " Months after returning from Iraq , in April 2008 , Agosto became a member of Iraq Veterans Against the War . Stop - loss and defiance . Agosto ' s Estimated Termination of Service ( ETS ) date was August 3 , 2009 , but he was stop - lossed in early 2009 so he could deploy with his unit to Afghanistan . On April 30 , he informed his company commander that he would not deploy to Afghanistan . The following day , May 1 , the commander gave Agosto a counseling statement in which he ordered Agosto to deploy with his unit . In the remarks section of that document , Agosto wrote , " There is no way I will deploy to Afghanistan . The occupation is immoral and unjust . It does not make the American people any safer . It has the opposite effect . " He then posted a scanned copy of the counseling statement on his Facebook page . Agosto ' s refusal to deploy did not yield any immediate consequences . Agosto grew frustrated with assisting his unit prepare for the deployment that he morally opposed . On May 11 , he told his company commander that he would not obey any orders he felt assisted his unit in preparation for the deployment . On May 18 , Agosto ' s unit was slated to begin Soldier Readiness Processing ( SRP ) , and he refused to go through that process . He would later be charged with refusing to obey a lawful order for this incident . Court - martial . Agosto was court - martialed on August 5 , 2009 . He pled guilty to the charge of disobeying a lawful order . During the sentencing phase of the proceedings , Agosto stated that he thought future courts would rule that the war in Afghanistan is illegal . He submitted a petition with the signatures of more than 2 , 000 people . Agosto also submitted a letter of support from Noam Chomsky , whose book , " " , turned Agosto against " imperialist foreign policy . " He was demoted to the rank of Private , stripped of two thirds of his pay for a month , and sentenced to thirty days in jail . After his sentence was read , Agosto disdainfully ripped off the patch that displayed his specialist rank from his uniform . Agosto was released from Bell County Law Enforcement Center on August 29 , 2009 , after serving 24 days . After release from jail . Agosto was discharged from the Army on October 20 , 2009 and was barred from re - entering the Fort Hood Military Reservation . His discharge was characterized as " other than honorable . " He served a term on the board of directors of Iraq Veterans Against the War . He currently is on the board of directors of Fort Hood Support Network , the governing body for Under the Hood Café in Killeen , Texas . He is a Sociology / Anthropology major at Florida International University .