serviceyears branch death_date death_place birth_place allegiance placeofburial_label name battles birth_date placeofburial article_title birth_name
2002 -- 2005 flag_of_the_united_states_army . gif united states army 25 august 2012 new york , new york sioux falls , south dakota united states of america place of burial joshua casteel iraq war 27 december 1979 cedar rapids , iowa joshua casteel
 joshua eric casteel
joshua casteel

joshua casteel -lrb- 27 december 1979 -- 25 august 2012 -rrb- was a united states army soldier , conscientious objector , playwright , and divinity student .
he was born in sioux falls , south dakota and raised in cedar rapids , iowa in a christian evangelical family .
casteel won an appointment to the us military academy at west point but dropped out in his first term there .
he enlisted in the army in may 2002 and was trained as an interrogator at fort huachuca and in the arabic language at the defense language institute in monterey , ca .
casteel served with the army 's 202nd military intelligence battalion as an interrogator at the abu ghraib prison in iraq and claimed to have conducted over 130 prisoner interrogations .
his unit arrived in iraq in 2004 , six weeks after revelation of prisoner abuses by us personnel at the prison .
the army approved his application for conscientious objector and granted him an honorable discharge in 2005 .
casteel graduated from the university of iowa in 2008 with a dual master of fine arts degree in playwriting and non-fiction writing .
he was an active member of iraq veterans against the war and the author of several plays performed in the us and abroad , including `` returns '' and `` the interrogation room '' .
as a public speaker on religious and political matters , casteel addressed audiences in the us , ireland , sweden , italy and the uk .
he was featured in the documentary films '' '' and `` soldiers of conscience '' .
in 2008 , excerpts of casteel 's emails from iraq were published in `` harper 's magazine '' and in book form by essay press .
he died of lung cancer in new york city in new york-presbyterian hospital on august 25 , 2012 .
an oncologist told casteel 's mother that `` joshua died of lung cancer without having any of the conventional risk factors such as smoking , asbestos exposure or radiation ... i am quite sure we did not have anyone younger with lung cancer those five years i worked at the va. '' casteel 's family believes his cancer was the result of exposure to toxins released by a burn pit he slept near for six months in iraq .
he was a university of chicago divinity school graduate student at the time of his death .
