The still, haunting photos taken on glass plates look like a page right out of the history books, but if you look closer, the military men, and women, aren't wearing the wool blue and grey uniforms of the Civil War.  Instead, they are wearing the camouflage that's being issued now, in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Photographer Staff Sgt. Ed Drew has documented the current action in the Middle East during his tour not with a digital camera or an iPhone, but with an old-fashioned camera; a camera that goes further back than film, actually etching the image of his brothers and sisters in war on a small, hand-sized piece of tin.

Drew said he created his art to put a face to the generic "Bring the Troops Home" mantra that has been heard.  He wanted to document and name his friends who, in some cases, were the first to know who died, actually carried the body of the fallen soldier home to base, or who didn't come home themselves.

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Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez

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Ceudy Gutierrez reads a book to her 2-year-old son, Matias, at their home in Buford, GA, on Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2025. Ceudy Gutierrez is struggling to make ends meet for herself and her three young kids following her husband’s ICE arrest earlier this fall. (Miguel Martinez/ AJC)

Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez